The Rural Ultrasound Fellowship is built on proven international models for advanced bedside ultrasound teaching and mentorship. Unlike course or bootcamp based teaching (i.e. "one and done" models), the Rural Ultrasound Fellowship provides a year long curriculum with spaced repetition and ongoing faculty support, every step of the way.
It truly is an ultrasound fellowship, and one which you can participate in from anywhere, while working full time in your own practice.
RUF Fellows: January 2024
Canadian
Fellows
Provinces /
Territories
International Fellow
(🇦🇺)
Alumni
since 2022
This Group Learning program has been certified by the
College of Family Physicians of Canada for up to 52 Mainpro+ credits.
Rural Generalism is AWESOME - but also has its challenges. We see patients with all types of presentations, and we must diagnose and manage them using limited resources and without easy access to advanced diagnostics or consultants.
Ultrasound helps close the gap.
Nowhere in Canadian medical practice does bedside ultrasound stand to improve healthcare more than in rural and resource limited settings.
Multiply your confidence at the bedside.
In real time.
Without radiation [or any known adverse biological effect.]
PoCUS has been around for nearly five decades, and PoCUS courses in Canada, for more than half of that. Thousands of Canadian Rural physicians have been trained.
Yet the overall uptake, consolidation and application into practice remains alarmingly low: of a dozen physicians taking an introductory course, perhaps only one or two may be actively applying what they have learned a year later.
Canadian physicians have barely begun to scratch the surface, when it comes to the powerful clinical enhancements and quality of care improvements PoCUS integration could be making. Especially in resource-limited environments.
NO!
In our opinion, PoCUS is not ideally suited to a "One-And-Done" weekend course format.
Imagine trying to teach an anatomy student, with otherwise no prior knowledge, physical examination in just one weekend... Start with auscultation (on mostly healthy volunteers), show them abdominal percussion & palpation, perhaps a knee exam? Then let them loose in an clinical context. - How confident and capable would you expect them to be in diagnosing aortic regurgitation, appendicitis or an MCL tear, without any further support, or mentoring?
Just like learning physical examination (perhaps an entire year's worth of content during a four year medical degree?), Bedside ultrasound is a complex and non-intuitive skill. Yes it builds on a physician's inherent knowledge, but also requires: understanding of new biological acoustic principles, a paradigm shift in diagnostic thinking plus proficiency with esoteric technology.There is hope though!
You CAN master ultrasound! (Anyone can.) But you're going to need more than 8 or 16 hours of compressed information over a weekend, here and there. Just like learning Physical Exam in medical school, we need:(1) much, much more educational time
(2) repeated exposure
(3) ongoing mentorship and faculty support