Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI)
Holistic Point-of-Care Ultrasound Education

It was late in the afternoon at a federally qualified health center on the East Coast when a patient with a swollen leg walked in seeking care. The primary care physician, as per the norm, was about to send the uninsured patient to the emergency room (ER). Suddenly, she used her training with Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI) to diagnose a potentially life threatening blood clot in her leg using a hand-held ultrasound, saving the patient hours of waiting in the ER and a very large medical bill. This revolutionary use of ultrasound at the bedside to make immediate medical decisions is known as Point-Of Care Ultrasound (POCUS).

Having been trained by GUSI— the leading organization in POCUS training—the primary care physician was empowered to make a definitive diagnosis by identifying the patient’s blood clot and treating it. “Our last-mile solution is bringing the medical provider to a place of confidence and competence with our blended longitudinal POCUS training model,” says Dr. Kevin Bergman, CEO and Co-Founder of GUSI. The California-based firm offers comprehensive education and wraparound training in POCUS—the next-gen stethoscope—to global medical communities.

POCUS is proven to be more cost effective, faster, safer and often more accurate than other diagnostic alternatives (i.e., X-rays) in the hands of a trained provider. However, access to POCUS training for the everyday provider is limited and often lacks the necessary personalized attention and ongoing mentorship to effectively train and credential a new provider.

GUSI’s mission is to improve patient care by effectively training front-line providers in POCUS.GUSI provides wraparound education, training, and software in point-of-care ultrasound to healthcare providers and health systems. GUSI has the largest network of POCUS expert educators in the world allowing their organization to deliver impactful personalized learning experiences at scale. The company’s portfolio of services includes 35 hours of engaging, in depth asynchronous didactic videos that explain the basics of ultrasound and scanning techniques across multiple medical specialties. GUSI’s faculty experts guide medical providers to acquire ultrasound scans, interpret their scans, and based on those interpretations, make better medical decisions for their patients.

The GUSI team educates remote learners through their tele-ultrasound mentorship program—just like a virtual Zoom call—while doing live scanning. With real-time co-discovery, medical providers gain confidence and competence in being able to diagnose a range of diseases such as heart failure, pneumonia, rotator cuff tears, or gallstones. GUSI also offers an online scan portfolio to archive and receive expert feedback on their scans. GUSI’s offerings also include tailor-made virtual fellowship courses for individual and group learners globally.

In addition to these online offerings, GUSI provides residency services and two-day in-person courses with a focus on hands-on scanning sessions, and >96 percent of their past participants felt that the course enhanced their confidence in their ability to do POCUS. Their next live, immersive course is in San Francisco in April 14-15, 2022.

For the road ahead, GUSI is about to release POCUS training curricula in sports medicine, pediatrics, critical care, and OB-GYN. It has a well-planned roadmap to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of making diagnoses at the primary care level by using ultrasound. Recently, GUSI launched a new OB nursing POCUS course to facilitate the delivery of high-quality, timely patient care. Furthermore, GUSI is aspiring to partner with multiple organizations to help them attain a global reach. “We want to integrate POCUS into the house of medicine in healthcare and address the biggest gap of accessibility to quality training through our proven learning platform,” states Bergman.