POCUS Bootcamp; Abdominal, Cardiac, Pleural Space, Lung, and Interventional Point-of-Care Ultrasound Techniques

July 15, 2025

Course Description

Dust off that ultrasound machine, go beyond the basics in this full-day hands-on POCUS course!

This 8-hour lab, supported by over 8 hours of online pre-course content, will build on basic ultrasound skills through practical, hands-on training using live dogs. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and practice all the common veterinary POCUS techniques currently used to assess the abdomen, pleural space, lung, vascular system, and heart. Following live dog scanning participants will have the opportunity to put their newly learned skills to the test by searching for different pathologies in cadavers, including pneumothorax and pneumoperitoneum. Phantom training models will then be used to demonstrate and practice ultrasound guided procedures, using a vascular access model. A model used to replicate lymph node puncture will also be used and as a bonus, an ultrasound guided chicken vascular access Olympics will be included for those that wish to compete for prizes (which will be copies of the textbook “Essentials of Veterinary Point of Care Ultrasound: Pleural Space & Lung).

This lab will focus on techniques developed by the instructors, designed to increase veterinary POCUS diagnostic accuracy, and help facilitate easier application into everyday veterinary practice. These are all techniques that can be performed by any practitioner and should be used in everyday practice!

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course participants will be able to:

Perform point-of-care ultrasound scanning of the abdomen, pleural space, lung, heart, and vascular systems
Identify all key anatomic structures that are assessed during all veterinary POCUS exams
Identify common POCUS pathologies in cadavers
Build phantom ultrasound guided procedural phantom models
Practice ultrasound guided procedures on vascular access and lymph node phantom models.
Compete for prizes in the ultrasound guided chicken vascular access Olympics!

We are also offering this course on July 11th! Register Here!

Access to this course will expire one year (365 days) from the course’s end date. After this period, users will no longer have access to course materials, resources, and any associated content. It is the responsibility of the users to complete the course and download any materials including their course completion certificate.

Photo by Elina Volkova

Agenda

TMI_POCUSBootcamp_July15_2025

Instructors

Dr. Søren Boysen

“POCUS to LIVE; LIVE to POCUS!” sums up Dr. Søren Boysen’s passion for POCUS. Winner of the 2023 Jack Mara Scientific Achievement Award “Advances in Point of Care Ultrasound” (POCUS), co-founder of the veterinary emergency and critical ultrasound (VECCUS) working group, co-lead on the veterinary POCUS consensus statement documents, and credited with introducing the small animal world to FAST exams, Søren is considered the “godfather” and a leading expert in all things related to veterinary POCUS. After graduating from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Canada, Søren completed an internship at the Atlantic Veterinary College, and a Residency in Small Animal Emergency and Critical Care at Tufts University, becoming an ACVECC diplomate in 2003. Former chief of veterinary emergency and critical care at the University of Montreal he is currently employed as a Full Professor at the University of Calgary. Extensively published (> 150 veterinary scientific publications; editor of 2 POCUS textbooks) and a recipient of numerous teaching and research excellence awards, he has become an internationally recognized speaker, having lectured in > 30 countries. With the help of many like-minded individuals around the globe he continues to actively research and develop ultrasound training techniques, education programs, and workshops for non-specialist practitioners. Along with POCUS, his research interests include resuscitation, hemorrhage, coagulation, and perfusion.

Dr. Serge Chalhoub

Dr. Chalhoub graduated from the DVM program at the Faculté de médecine vétérinaire (FMV) of the Université de Montréal in 2004. Serge followed this with a one-year rotating small animal clinical internship at the same institution. After working for two years as a general practitioner and emergency veterinarian in Montreal, Serge pursued a residency in small animal internal medicine at the Animal Medical Center (AMC) in New York City. Once his residency completed in 2009 he stayed on at the AMC as their first renal/hemodialysis fellow and then as a staff doctor. Dr. Chalhoub has been a faculty member at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) since 2012 and currently holds the rank of Associate Professor (Teaching). He was the recipient of the 2021 and 2013 Canadian Veterinary Medical Association’s Teacher of the Year Award, the 2015 University of Calgary Team Teacher of the Year Award, and the 2017 Carl J. Norden Distinguished Teacher Award. Serge is the coordinator of a community outreach-service learning program (UCVM-CUPS Pet Health Clinic) for disadvantaged Calgarians. He has authored and co-authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters on veterinary point of care ultrasound, renal and urinary medicine, and lectures around the world on these topics. He is a member of the National Issues Committee (NIC) of the CVMA and a Council Member for the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association

Sponsor

Travel

Questions about where to stay while you’re here? Our “Hotel Map” shows a few of the closest hotels to CSU VetCE.

Northern Colorado and the City of Fort Collins offer many great indoor and outdoor activities to explore. For an up-to-date list of activities, visit their website.

Policies

Participant Cancellation Policy: Course attendees can cancel their registration for an in-person course according to the following

Cancellation more than 60 days prior: Full refund minus 10% processing fee or 100% Future Transfer Credit (FTC).
Cancellation 30-60 days prior: 50% refund or 75% FTC.
Cancellations within 30 days: 50% FTC only. Cancellations due to illness or other unforeseen circumstances will be considered on an individual basis.
Future Transfer Credits can be applied to any course within 365 days of the cancelled course.

Course Cancellation Policy: Course cancellations due to low registration numbers or other circumstances may be announced 35 days or more prior to the course. Full refund of the course registration or 100% Future Transfer Credit (FTC) will apply. We are unable to reimburse for travel expenses incurred.

Course Access Policy:

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