Integration of Point-of-Care Ultrasound Education Into the Internal Medicine Core Clerkship Experience.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is becoming an essential skill for internists. To date, there are no professional guidelines for how POCUS skills should be taught to medical students. A panel of POCUS experts from seven academic medical centers in the United States was convened to describe the components of independently developed IM clerkship POCUS training programs, identify areas of similarity and difference, and propose recommendations for alignment.

Incidence, radiographical features, and proposed mechanism for pneumocephalus from intravenous injection of air.

Background: Pneumocephalus typically implies a traumatic breach in the meningeal layer or an intracranial gas-producing infection. Unexplained pneumocephalus on a head computed tomography (CT) in an emergency setting often compels emergency physicians to undertake aggressive evaluation and consultation.

Methods: In this paper, we report three cases of pneumocephalus that appear to result from retrograde injection of air through an intravenous (IV) catheter.

Patient perceptions of a proton pump inhibitor therapeutic interchange program across the continuum of care.

Objective: To determine if participation in a hospital-based proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapeutic interchange program resulted in differences in patient perceptions related to clinical and humanistic outcomes.

Methods: A quasiexperimental repeated-measures study compared patients' perceptions in two groups (111 patients) at hospital admission, discharge, 3-4 days after discharge, and 2-3 weeks after discharge to detect differences across the continuum of care. Patient awareness of the hospital-based interchange also was examined.