SAN FRANCISCO, April 23, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Bringing order to chaos is a challenge in the best of circumstances.
Never more so than in a war zone, where clinicians race against time, proximity to enemy forces, and often incoming fire—to triage and treat wounded patients.
“We support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom in a war they did not seek.” Dr. Kevin Bergman, GUSI
That’s the situation faced by physicians, military medics, and other clinicians on battlefields across Ukraine. Circulating among them, leading lifesaving training in point of care ultrasound (POCUS), members of the Ukrainian medical community train as many clinicians as they can, as efficiently as possible.
Within these stringent parameters, the POCUS Essentials Course—offered at no cost by Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI)—has proved to be invaluable. The video curriculum, closed-captioned in Ukrainian, is led by experts in point of care ultrasound. And because it’s available online, the Ukrainian teams can learn POCUS whenever the opportunity arises.
“The idea behind this training is to give clinicians the skills and confidence they need to integrate POCUS into their patient care under very difficult conditions,” said Dr. Kevin Bergman, CEO and co-founder of GUSI.
“We decided to offer this training to these healthcare providers at no cost,” Bergman said, “Because we support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom in a war they did not seek.”
Dr. Vadym Vus, a rural family physician currently working out of Kyiv, is one of the people helping spread the reach of point of care ultrasound throughout his country.
As part of the FOCUS POCUS ultrasound team, Dr. Vus and other Ukrainian physicians have led free training for the military, refugees, and students. Since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Dr. Vus has learned to use POCUS in ways he never imagined.
“Using POCUS we can do a tactical triage of patients in the field—for example, performing FAST exams (focused assessment with sonography in trauma) to identify internal bleeding, or to reveal pneumothorax, or to find and remove shrapnel,” Dr. Vus said.
“POCUS also helps assess arterial blood flow in extremities, to determine viability—if blood is still flowing, saving the extremity is still a possibility. If not, amputation may be required,” he added.
Dr. Stanislav Kravchuk, a gastroenterologist based in Lviv, Ukraine, has traversed his country multiple times to provide POCUS training since the war began.
“Our team of doctors in the Ukrainian POCUS Society includes various specialties, all seeking to convey ultrasound skills as far and wide as possible,” Dr. Kravchuk said.
“Eighty percent of fighters’ survival depends on quality of care at the evacuation stage,” Kravchuk said. “In our conditions of combat, evacuating the wounded is often extremely difficult due to the condition of the roads, intensity of shelling—and due to anti-aviation measures. Casualties often wait 24 to 36 hours for transport from battlefields. Meanwhile, medics put tourniquets on, put in vascular access, and wrap the wounded in thermal blankets.”
Once the patients are evacuated, clinicians use ultrasound for triage and during surgery. “Catheterization and other procedures are safer with POCUS,” Kravchuk said, citing critical funding from the Christian Medical Association for training of military medics.
“Answering difficult medical questions in real time is critical for any doctor, especially during war where citizens are in harm’s way and the existing healthcare infrastructure is damaged,” said Dr. Mena Ramos, a family physician and GUSI Co-Founder. “Partnering with Dr. Vus and Dr. Kravchuk made it possible for GUSI to share our POCUS learning resources to help train thousands of Ukrainian doctors and as a result, reach tens of thousands of lives” Ramos added.
“We want people to use objective science to be brave in making clinical decisions,” Kravchuk continued. “Thanks to Global Ultrasound Institute, more than 3,000 doctors and military medics have been trained in this life-saving technology,” he said.
“Right now, there are now about 10 teams working in the field of POCUS training in Ukraine. Two years ago, we were the only one,” Kravchuk said.
About GUSI
The Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI) is at the forefront of point of care ultrasound (POCUS), providing wraparound education, training, and software to healthcare providers and health systems globally.
With a network of over 350 POCUS educators worldwide, GUSI training programs are designed for use across multiple medical specialties. The institute has released a musculoskeletal/sports medicine training curriculum, along with courses in pediatrics, pulmonology, obstetrics, and more.
GUSI co-founders Kevin Bergman, MD, and Mena Ramos, MD, are leaders in POCUS education and have trained over 12,000 healthcare providers in 60 countries.
To learn more about the Global Ultrasound Institute (GUSI) and its programs, visit global ultrasound institute
SOURCE GLOBAL ULTRASOUND INSTITUTE