Point of Care UltraSound (POCUS): Current State and IHE Bound

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has rapidly expanded across clinical care and medical education, driven by the availability of handheld devices and growing demand for bedside imaging. Yet in many organizations, POCUS workflows remain siloed, home-grown, and disconnected from enterprise imaging systems, creating challenges for quality, governance, interoperability, and scalability. This session addresses the urgent need for standardized, enterprise-ready POCUS workflows and helps attendees understand how current healthcare efforts are reshaping POCUS integration across clinical environments. 

Attendees will gain a clear understanding of emerging best practices for building and maturing a POCUS program within an enterprise imaging framework. Participants will explore practical approaches to key workflow components, including encounter-based imaging in the EHR, image acquisition and archiving, quality assurance, education and training workflows, and billing integration. Real-world POCUS scenarios will help participants translate standards and guidance into actionable strategies aligned with their organization’s goals, resources, and timelines. 

Participants will also learn how to evaluate POCUS initiatives through the lens of the Quadruple Aim—enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and supporting clinician well-being. Through interactive discussion and polling, attendees will assess common institutional concerns, identify leadership-aligned goals, and examine how to measure success while avoiding unintended consequences such as added workload without value. By the end of the session, participants will leave with a clearer roadmap for advancing POCUS standardization, interoperability, and sustainable program implementation within their own organizations.  

Objectives

• Describe the complexity and time requirements of the IHE process from a POCUS perspective 
• Explain the complexity and time requirements of the IHE process for POCUS workflows 
• Identify key factors that contribute to the complexity of the IHE process for POCUS