Can point-of-care ultrasound reduce clinical demands on radiology?

At the same time as radiology departments experience workforce pressures across the whole multidisciplinary team, demands on radiology services are ever increasing. This leads to delays in the performance of examinations and subsequent reporting, and ultimately delays to appropriate patient care.

Use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) as a tool aims to offer improved diagnostic accuracy at the bedside in real-time, often obviating the need for a subsequent departmental examination. If done correctly, this has the potential to reduce the demands on radiology services. For this to be the case, two conditions need to be met: the first is that POCUS needs to demonstrate a diagnostic accuracy that is acceptable; and the second is that those images and reports need to be available for review, quality assurance and subsequent audit if required.

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