Fellowship details | Department of Critical Care | School of Medicine

Point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS) has become the standard of care for timely and accurate evaluation and treatment of acutely ill patients. Most acute care disciplines require mastery of basic POCUS skills, but many specialties have advanced expertise in POCUS applications specific to their discipline. By capitalizing on the expertise and experience of POCUS educators from varied specialties, the QSONiC POCUS fellowship program at Queen’s University provides learners with training in the true breadth of POCUS applications. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary model is unique among other POCUS training programs in Canada.

The QSONiC fellowship training at Queen’s initially focuses on mastery of the fundamental aspects of POCUS: image acquisition, image interpretation, and clinical integration for a variety of acute care POCUS applications. Once proficiency in these skills has been developed, fellows progress to learning how to create POCUS workshops, develop curricula, manage a fellowship training program, interact with biomedical engineering and industry, and provide quality assurance and feedback to learners. Graduates of the QSONiC fellowship will be well equipped to become POCUS Directors and leaders in POCUS education and research.

This training is delivered collaboratively through application of POCUS in Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Anaesthesiology, Cardiology, Internal Medicine, and Pain Medicine settings. Fellows predominantly use Sonosite PX and XPorte ultrasound machines. All studies are archived and reviewed using QPathE middleware. A comprehensive curriculum is delivered through academic half-day seminars, image review rounds, journal clubs, and a series of procedure cadaver workshops. Graduates will have competence in full body diagnostic POCUS, including transesophageal echocardiography, as well as procedural POCUS. Most graduates challenge the National Board of Echocardiography’s Examination of Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography and/or the Examination of Special Competence in Advanced Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography.

The QSonic Fellowship is 12-months in duration. Fellows rotate through various clinical POCUS rotations but continue to work half-time clinically in their home discipline throughout the fellowship.

Who is Eligible?

The QSONiC fellowship is open to any physician specialist that provides acute care to patients. Typically, candidates are from Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine (either CCFP or FRCP), Anaesthesiology and Internal Medicine. However, compelling candidates from any discipline will be considered.

Canadian fellows who have an independent CPSO practice license are typically funded through the Queen’s University’s department of their home speciality while performing approximately 50% full-time clinical duties in that discipline. Availability of funded positions is dependent on the current needs of that department and the suitability of the fellow for that practice at Queen’s University and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC). Opportunities for Canadian fellows to self-fund their fellowship while clinically working elsewhere are considered if funded positions through Queen’s are unavailable.

Canadian FRCP PGY5 Emergency Medicine Residents and General Internal Medicine Fellows can do our fellowship as an area of concentrated expertise during their regular EM/GIM training while continuing their clinical roles in their home program at an approximate 50% reduction.

International sponsored trainees are eligible for the fellowship but must be sponsored by an acceptable source of funding (eg. foreign government, foreign government agencies, health related charitable organizations or department). Queen’s University has postgraduate training agreements with the following countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Interested candidates who are not mentioned in this list of countries would need to contact us directly to see if their specific department of discipline has the ability/interest to fund an international fellow. Please see PGME Clinical Fellowships for specific International Application information from the Postgraduate Medicine Office of Queen’s University.

Eligibility Requirements to Begin Training

Eligibility Requirements to Begin Training

Royal College certification in any primary specialty providing management in acute care settings, or College of Family Physicians of Canada certification, or equivalent.

OR
Eligibility for the Royal College certification examination in any primary specialty, or eligibility for the College of Family Physicians of Canada certification examination.

OR

Registration in a Royal College-accredited residency program in emergency medicine or general internal medicine with a minimum of three years of training and at least 2 months of training in an intensive care unit setting

AND

Completion of at least one month of dedicated training in point-of-care ultrasound as a rotation or proof of equivalent cumulative experience in the fundamentals of point-of-care ultrasound throughout training

Demonstrable interest in point-of-care ultrasound with AT LEAST ONE of the following:

- Career plans to actively incorporate ultrasound into clinical practice

- A planned career in clinical research, medical education, or healthcare quality improvement, where a POCUS will be the focus of future scholarly work.

- Medical education experience or expertise

- A track record of success with research projects, successful grant applications, publications, etc. (ultrasound or otherwise).

- Medical Leadership experience, or an interest in medical leadership or medical innovation

Application Details

Interested applicants are encouraged to submit the following by the due dates listed below for the year before they wish to begin POCUS training. Training typically begins July 1^st. Off-cycle candidates will be considered but can only enter the program in Blocks One (July 1^st), and Eight (mid-January):

Curriculum vitae (CV)
A letter of intent that includes:
- Why they wish to pursue special training in point-of-care ultrasound
- A description of the scholarly deliverable they hope to complete during training
Three letters of reference
Copy of Medical Degree
Copy of Specialist Certification (SC), or MCCEE Part 1 if trainee does not have SC
If international applicant, please also include the additional components outlined in (enter hyperlink: https://meds.queensu.ca/academics/postgraduate/prospective/admission/fellowships)

International Applicant due date: August 31^st before next year July 1^st start date

Canadian Applicant due date: September 30^th before next year July 1^st start date

To submit an application or for more information please email POCUS@queensu.ca