Educational Experience

Educational Experience:

The UCSF Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship offers a robust curriculum designed to build expertise across all facets of emergency ultrasound—clinical application, education, administration, and research.

Core Educational Components:

  • Proctored Scanning Shifts: Hands-on experience in the ED with adult and pediatric patients under expert faculty guidance to develop proficiency in image acquisition and interpretation for both basic and advanced ultrasound applications.
  • Didactics & Image Review: Weekly QA sessions, core lectures, and curated readings reinforce both foundational and advanced ultrasound knowledge.
  • Advanced Applications: Hands-on simulation sessions with faculty facilitate learning of advanced techniques such as transesophageal echocardiography and regional anesthesia applications.
  • Teaching Opportunities: Fellow-led monthly lectures and frequent bedside instruction for students, residents, and faculty help build strong teaching skills and a comprehensive ultrasound teaching portfolio.
  • Professional Development: Fellows attend the ESP physics course at the beginning of the fellowship and receive funding to attend the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) annual conference, which features expert-led education from a variety of medical specialties.
  • Journal Club: Monthly sessions focus on the critical appraisal of emerging literature, study design, and data interpretation.
  • Research: Each fellow completes a mentored research project with guidance from experienced faculty and statistical support from UC Merced.
  • Ultrasound Program Administration: Fellows participate in QA review, credentialing and privileging processes, machine maintenance, and database management—gaining practical experience in ultrasound program operations.

Fellowship Duties

The fellowship program adheres to the accreditation standards of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship Accreditation Council (EUFAC). During the fellowship year, fellows are required to:

  • Participate in five ultrasound scanning shifts per month
  • Perform, acquire, and interpret a minimum of 1,000 ultrasound exams
  • Attend weekly ultrasound conference and QA sessions
  • Conduct quality assurance (QA) on at least 750 ultrasound exams
  • Provide 20 hours of hands-on ultrasound teaching per month
  • Deliver monthly ultrasound lectures to medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty
  • Assist with ultrasound workshops for medical students, residents, and faculty
  • Participate in a monthly ultrasound journal club
  • Complete one original research project
  • Maintain ultrasound equipment
  • Assist with the emergency medicine faculty credentialing and privileging process

Additional Educational Opportunities

Ultrasound fellows are encouraged to participate in educating learners throughout UCSF Fresno and Community Regional Medical Center. Additional opportunities include:

  • Delivering lectures on critical care ultrasound topics to pulmonary/critical care fellows and internal medicine residents
  • Assisting with the annual UCSF Fresno intern boot camp in June, which includes ultrasound-guided vascular access training
  • Facilitating training sessions on ultrasound-guided IV access for ED and observation unit nurses

Educational Resources

All fellows will have access to the following resources:

  • Ma and Mateer’s Emergency Ultrasound textbook
  • Ultrasound Program Management: A Comprehensive Resource for Administrating Point-of-Care, Emergency, and Clinical Ultrasound
  • The state-of-the-art simulation center at UCSF Fresno, which includes multiple tools to support ultrasound education for residents and fellows, such as:
    • Vimedix ultrasound simulation trainer
    • Three Butterfly iQ handheld probes
    • Blue Phantom transvaginal pelvic ultrasound trainer
    • Ultrasound trainers for common emergency procedures, including:
      • Peripheral venous access
      • Central venous access
      • Arterial line placement
      • Thoracentesis
      • Paracentesis
      • Pericardiocentesis
      • Shoulder and knee arthrocentesis

Number of Sites:

Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC) is the only site. It is a high volume, high acuity level 1 trauma center in central Fresno. CRMC is a tertiary care center and receiving hospital for much of California’s San Joaquin valley. Our emergency medicine residency program was founded in 1974 and is one of the oldest and most well respected in the country. We are a four-year program training 10-12 emergency medicine residents each year. We are also home to a robust emergency medicine physician assistant residency and are the primary clinical rotation site for UCSF medical students training through the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) Prime training pathway.