Midwest Critical Care Fellows Ultrasound Symposium, 2026
Ten is a nice round number. It represents the number of times that the University of Iowa’s Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Occupational Medicine has hosted the Midwest Critical Care Fellows Ultrasound Symposium in Iowa City. A couple more high-water-mark numbers: 15 and 103. Those are the numbers of institutions and trainees, respectively, that sent these trainees to Iowa to participate in this year’s two-day crash course in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS).
The curriculum’s structure is a mix of didactic lecture on things like how to obtain the necessary views in a standard examination, of practice in image identification, and of actual hands-on work imaging volunteer patients. In each setting, the fellows are led by one of the dozens of faculty members from many of the same institutions the trainees call home. By the end of the two days, each fellow has been exposed to a variety of imaging situations, whether it is a thrombosis in a leg or a fluttering valve in an aorta. And they return home to their clinics, wards, and intensive care units ready to build on what they have learned.
This year’s new co-directors, Sydney Bowmaster, MD, and Charles Rappaport, MD, have brought their years of expertise in POCUS education to sustaining the program’s sterling reputation. The pair were aided Nicole Strand, the division’s program management associate, who has years of experience in organizing and executing the event.
After attendees arrived and made their way to the lecture hall of Medical Education Research Facility, Bowmaster led off this year’s event with an overview of the course, the basics of terminology, as well as practical tips in transducer wand manipulation and image acquisition.
Pre-divided groups then went to different stations or stayed in the lecture hall. Traveling groups either went to a smaller conference room for small-group discussion and image identification or to clinical practice spaces. Each space was staffed by two faculty members and a volunteer practice patient.
Those groups then rotated through the stations over the next two days, with more image identification practice in the main lecture hall.
Midday on both days, the groups reconvened in the MERF Atrium for a catered lunch and some community-building.
Our thanks to the members of the pulmonary division for their support for this annual event as well as the many staff members who assisted Bowmaster, Rappaport, and Strand in organizing the production. Special thanks as well to the faculty and patients who volunteer their time to ensure this training provides fellows with a solid foundation in this important skill.