The Midwest Fellows Critical Care Ultrasound Symposium is a reliable mark of the start of the academic year. The symposium is a two-day course for critical care fellows from across the region and beyond to focus specifically on how to properly administer point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), to people needing this urgent diagnostic scan, hosted by the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine.

Organized by Boulos (Paul) Nassar, MD, MPH, clinical professor in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine, and Nicole Strand, academic clinic program management associate, this graduate medical education opportunity is in its eighth year of being held here at Iowa.

This year, nearly 100 fellows and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) from academic health systems across Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Iowa learned from a panel of faculty from the same states, and from Colorado and Kansas.

While half the fellows participate in didactic instruction on how to obtain various types of views, the other half split up into small groups and take turns putting that instruction into practice on volunteer simulated patients.

“This conference provides an exceptional opportunity for fellows to acquire and apply various ultrasound skills,” Nassar said. “With almost a decade of organizing this, the University of Iowa has become a teaching hub for critical care ultrasound.”

Typically, at the end of the first day of the symposium, attendees come together to explore the bicycle trails of the Iowa City area and enjoy the sleepy summer evenings the area offers while getting to know their current and future colleagues. This year, the unpredictability of Iowa’s “five seasons” proved to have other plans, with thunderstorms and hail blowing through the evening. Instead, attendees socialized over provided breakfasts and lunches throughout the conference.

The second day of the symposium built on the previous day’s instruction. And by day’s end, more than 100 intensivists had upgraded their POCUS skills, whether they were part of the learning or teaching community for the event.

Congratulations and special thanks to Nassar and Strand for their work coordinating this successful event.