ArticleCanadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien2024
Use of point-of-care ultrasound in rural British Columbia: Scale, training, and barriers.
Article in Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- An Evaluation of the Accuracy of Point of Care Ultrasound by Family Physicians in Rural British Columbia, Canada: Methodological Insights.The Australian journal of rural health · 2026Article
- A theory-informed approach to identify barriers to utilising Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) in practice: from vicious cycles to sustainable solutions.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2026Article
- Article
- Appreciating the LoTP Study: Further Refining Scope-of-Practice Analysis.Family medicine · 2025Article
- Assessing the clinical relevance of point-of-care ultrasound for hospitalists: Influence on clinical reasoning and decision-making.PloS one · 2025Article
- In every disadvantage there is an advantage: Drug shortages and other challenges in family medicine.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine the scale and scope of use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in rural British Columbia (BC).
designOnline survey.
settingRural BC.
participantsPhysicians practising in rural BC communities.
main outcome measuresPractitioner demographic and practice characteristics, locations and frequency of POCUS use, POCUS education and training, and practitioner attitudes about and barriers to POCUS use.
resultsTwo hundred twenty-seven surveys were completed in fall 2021, corresponding to a response rate of 11.9% of all rural practitioners in BC. A total of 52.1% of respondents worked in communities with less than 10,000 people, while 24.9% had practices with relatively large proportions of Indigenous patients (more than 20% of the practice population). Respondents reported ease of access to local POCUS devices, with use highest in emergency departments (87.2%) followed by ambulatory care clinic (54.7%) and inpatient (50.3%) settings. Use of POCUS influenced clinical decision making in half the occasions in which it was employed, including a range of diagnostic and procedural applications. Barriers to use included lack of training, limited time to perform POCUS scans, and absence of image review or consultative support. Needed support for POCUS identified by respondents included real-time image acquisition advice and funding for both device acquisition and training. Recommendations for including POCUS training in undergraduate and residency education were strongly supported.
conclusionUse of POCUS in BC is expanding in frequency, scope, and scale in practices serving rural areas and in rural communities with large Indigenous populations, with practitioners reporting important improvements in clinical care as a result. Future research could help improve systemic support for POCUS use, guide needed curriculum changes in medical school and postgraduate training, and be used to inform continuing professional development needs.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.