Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) Applications Taught Within Canadian Internal Medicine Residency Programs: Results of a National Survey.

Background: Point of care ultrasound (POCUS) is an important tool for bedside diagnostics and procedures within internal medicine. In 2017 the Canadian Internal Medicine Ultrasound (CIMUS) group provided recommendations for applications to teach POCUS to internal medicine trainees. The way that training programs have implemented these recommendations has not been assessed. We aim to assess POCUS applications taught within internal medicine training programs, five years after the CIMUS group's recommendations. Methods: An anonymous survey was distributed in 2022 to POCUS leads at Canadian internal medicine residency and general internal medicine subspecialty training programs. This voluntary survey assessed which POCUS applications were being taught to trainees. Results: A total of 17 responses for the core training program and 12 responses for the subspecialty training program were collected. There was widespread uptake of the CIMUS-recommended POCUS applications within core and subspecialty level training. The compliance was higher for procedures than diagnostics. Many applications recommended at the subspecialty level were being incorporated into the core training program curriculum. Many applications that were not commented on by the CIMUS group were also incorporated into POCUS curricula. Conclusions: POCUS education within Canadian internal medicine residency programs are largely in sync with the CIMUS recommendations published in 2017. Many programs have expanded their training beyond the CIMUS group's recommendations.