POCUS | Point of care ultrasound

 POCUS enables providers to assess patients in real-time and provides current and relevant information to direct care decisions. As a tool, POCUS is portable and allows for targeted, non-invasive diagnosis and can be utilized for procedural guidance while minimizing radiation exposure. Common uses of POCUS in the NICU setting include (and are not limited to):

• Evaluation of cardiac function, pericardial effusion, and volume status
• Evaluation of the lungs (e.g. consolidation, pulmonary edema, pneumothorax, and pleural effusion)
• Assessment of abdominal quadrants (e.g. free fluid)
• Facilitation and surveillance prior to, during, and/or after procedures (e.g. central and peripheral line placement, lumbar puncture, paracentesis)

Our POCUS Program was established in 2019 and is led by Fatima Eskandar-Afshari, DO. We have two neonatal POCUS machines and one echocardiography machine for use at the bedside in the NICU at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Our team is committed to training on POCUS application and best practices. Stanford Medicine is one of a few institutions in the country that offers dedicated POCUS education to internal faculty, advanced care providers, and trainees as well as external healthcare providers based regionally, nationally, and internationally. Additionally, members of our POCUS Program leadership hold active roles in committees in the National Neonatal POCUS Collaborative.