The Diffusion of an Innovation: Implementing an Ultrasound Curriculum Across a State-Wide Campus

Abstract

Introduction Implementation of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has expanded exponentially in the last 10 years. However, much of the published literature describes the design and delivery process within centralized U.S. medical schools, leaving regional campuses guessing on how best to approach their efforts. Methods Using the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, this article describes the Medical College of Georgia’s (MCG) two-year effort to implement and disseminate a POCUS curriculum in both UME and GME across three regional campuses and a partnership campus in Athens. This framework was chosen because it makes visible the adoption process of a new technology within our distributed medical campus system. Results Implementation at MCG occurred in three distinct phases. Phase one focused on implementing ultrasound training in 1st and 2nd year of medical school. Phase two included an expansion into GME and the creation of the Center for Ultrasound where dedicated resources were made available to support a unified curriculum. Phase three integrated POCUS into the 3rd & 4th year clerkships. The last phase was unequivocally the most difficult phase to implement, given the amount of complexity in coordinating and assessing ultrasound competence in students spread out across the state. Discussion Given our success in implementing ultrasound across training levels and geographical locations, we have several key insights that may be helpful to other medical schools with a distributed campus system. Key insights include the need for a strong support system for the adoption and integration of POCUS, a team of clinicians/practitioners interested in the innovation’s diffusion across regional and clinical sites, and packaging ultrasound education as a teaching tool, rather than a separate and distinct skill. Conflict of Interest: None Human Subjects: Not applicable Treatment of Animal Subjects: Not applicable

Keywords

• Ultrasound, POCUS, Diffusion of Innovations, UME, GME, Regional Campuses