Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used to assess medical patients. It has many uses in daily clinical practice, including improved diagnostic timeliness and accuracy, and providing information about a patient's prognosis and follow-up. It has been integrated into numerous specialities, but remains relatively undefined in internal medicine training programs. Ultrasonography is a useful tool in the standard clinical practice of internists in numerous clinical scenarios (Emergency Department, hospital ward, general and specific consultations, and home care). Although POCUS has been recently included in the European curriculum of internal medicine, there are differences between European internists in its use, ranging from not at all to well structured educational programs. The use of POCUS needs to be widespread in internal medicine departments, and to accomplish this we must encourage structured training. This document details the consensus-based recommendations by the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM) Ultrasound working group. We establish POCUS core competencies and clinical settings for internists in a symptom-based approach. We also propose training requirements, providing a framework for training programs at a national level.

3rd Department of Medicine 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University and General University Hospital Czech Society of Internal Medicine Prague

AHEPA University Hospital Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Internal Medicine Society of Greece Greece

Department of Acute Medicine East Surrey Hospital Society for Acute Medicine United Kingdom

Department of Gastroenterology Hepatology und Palliative Care Helios Hospital Niederberg German Society of Internal Medicine Velbert Germany

Department of Internal Medicine Clinicum Medical Faculty University of Helsinki Young Internists Subcommittee European Federation of Internal Medicine Finnish Society of Internal Medicine

Department of Internal Medicine Radboud university medical center Nijmegen and Rijnstate Hospital Arnhem the Netherlands

Department of Internal Medicine University Hospitals of Skåne Malmö Swedish Society of Internal Medicine Skane Sweden

Diagnostic and Interventional Utrasound Unit Division of Multiorgan Failure Emergency General Surgery and Transplant Department S Orsola Malpighi University Hospital Italian Society of Internal Medicine

Hospital SAMIC de Alta Complejidad Sociedad Argentina de Medicina El Calafate Argentina

Internal Medicine and Emergency Department Hospital Znojmo Czech Society of Internal Medicine Czech Republic

Internal Medicine and Subacute Care Unit University Hospital of Parma Federation of Associations of Hospital Doctors on Internal Medicine Parma Italy

Internal Medicine Department Abdurrahman Yurtaslan Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital Turkish Society of Internal Medicine Turkey

Internal Medicine Department Cardiology Coltea Clinical Hospital University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest Romanian Society of Internal Medicine Romania

Internal Medicine Department Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor Complutense University Spanish Society of Internal Medicine Madrid Spain

Internal Medicine Department Ospedale Luigi Sacco ASST Fbf Sacco Italian Society of Internal Medicine Milan Italy

National Centre for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology Haukeland University Hospital Bergen Norway

Romanian Society of Internal Medicine Romania

Serviço de Medicina Interna Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto Portuguese Society of Internal Medicine Porto Portugal

Eur J Intern Med. 2020 May;75:28-29. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2020.03.006. PubMed

Eur J Intern Med. 2020 May;75:25-27. doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2020.02.034. PubMed

References provided by Crossref.org

Point-of-Care Cardiac Ultrasound Training Programme: Experience from the University Hospital Hradec Králové