Use of Artificial Intelligence Program to Increase Resident Confidence and POCUS Use at the Bedside

Abstract

Introduction: Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) education continues to increase in undergraduate and graduate medical education, mostly fueled by clinical usefulness and increasing graduate medical education requirements. Many schools are now teaching POCUS as a core part of the curriculum. However, with the sudden rush of POCUS education, one barrier often identified in the literature is a lack of trained faculty to educate residents and medical students. Study Objective: Our team at the Family Medicine Department recruited an artificial intelligence program developed by Global Ultrasound Institute to assist POCUS instructors with resident ultrasound education. The research project would use AI programming and learning to allow residents to access timely answers to questions at the bedside while on rounds, when a trained POCUS instructor might not always be present. Since POCUS instructors cannot be available for every bedside patient examination in the hospital or residency clinic, this AI program would provide answers to needed bedside questions to give residents more confidence with performing more POCUS evaluations. Methods: We would deploy the AI program for interns who have completed at least 6 months of POCUS training and residents who had completed prior intern POCUS training. This program would be available on smart phone devices for when rounding in adult medicine, pediatrics, OBGYN, and in the outpatient residency clinic. Residents will have 24/7 access to a smart AI who will answer questions about POCUS technique, indications for use, interpretation questions, and many more. The program will give residents a quick and focused answer, as well as access to resources for further study if needed. Resident POCUS use will be tracked with the Butterfly IQ academy, as well as with resident procedure logging. Results: Since this is a very new program and relationship with Global Ultrasound Institute, no results are currently available. We anticipate preliminary results will be available by the presentation date in April. Conclusions: Artificial Intelligence is changing the way medical education is approached in the United States and the world. This particular program will allow residents to have access to timely answers to their POCUS practice questions at the bedside, while on rounds. We anticipate this will allow residents the opportunity to use the ultrasound devices for more cases and scenarios, as well as have improved confidence in their ultrasound acquisition abilities, with the support of the AI Education Assistant.