Gulfcoast Ultrasound Institute

Course reviewed: Introduction to Emergency Medicine Ultrasound
Pros:
–Excellent speakers who have practical private and academic emergency medicine ultrasound experience.
–Excellent speakers who are sonographers that give clear and concise and understandable introduction to ultrasound
–Well organized
— Not a wasted minute from 7:30 AM to 5:00 PM for 3 days.
— No fluff. All practical need to know information.
— Program director and speakers are all friendly, accessible, and giving of their knowledge.
–3:1 ratio work shop in learning hands on ultrasound with live models for EFAST exam, Cardiac FATE, Vascular access (location and landmarks, not actual placement of central lines), OB/​Gyn endovaginal and transabdominal exams, musculoskeletal, and more. All live human models. No mannequins.
–Get multiple practices as you rotate among different human models to get exposed to different anatomy from different age ranges.
–Excellent notebook of all the power point slides, so you don’t have to write down notes. Allows one to listen and learn.
–Lectures in morning then hands on in afternoon so you learn and reinforce what you just heard
Side benefits:
— St. Pete’s Beach is very nice place. The beach and water is much better than any California beach in terms of water being bath water temperature and not overcrowded. (Came in September).
–Relaxing small town atmosphere.
–Classrooms were very comfortable.
–Audio visual media was very good.
–Continental breakfast provided good and ample food from morning until lunch time. Even have fancy cappuccino, espresso, latte machine that gave unlimited free drinks.
–Great review as well as new ultrasound education. I’ve been to two other US courses in California, and they did not provide the 3:1 ration nor the number of live models with many different sonographers and a couple of well credentialed physicians as instructors.
Cons:
–It’s on East Coast, so if you are on west coast it’s a good flight, but I flew from California, and it was well worth the time and money.
–No other cons
I’m not sponsored by GUI. I couldn’t find any reviews on this course before I came out here, so I thought I’d make this entry for my fellow EM colleagues.