A Valuable Tool for Anesthesiologists

Medscape—December 1, 2016

Medscape recently interviewed Stephen Caleb Haskins, MD, anesthesiologist at HSS, about the emerging role that point-of-care ultrasound is playing in the field of anesthesiology.

Dr. Haskins defines point-of-care ultrasound (utilizing ultrasound at the bedside) which is a very effective tool for rapidly diagnosing certain pathologies that can be severe. He discusses the course that is being taught at HSS which is the focus assessed transthoracic echocardiography, or FATE, protocol, and how that came to the U.S.

"I think the tipping point came when we embraced ultrasound for things like vascular access, such as central- and arterial-line placement and also for nerve blocks," said Dr. Haskins. "We started to say, 'These machines are ubiquitous in most anesthesia practices. Why don't we start finding other ways to use them to help improve patient care?'"

Dr. Haskins puts this into clinical context and shows how point-of-care ultrasound can make a huge difference in terms of clinical decision-making. 

The full article is posted on Medscape.com. Please note it is subscription-gated.