Is there a place for point-of-care ultrasound in UK primary care?

Point-of-care ultrasound (PoC-US), defined as an ultrasound examination performed and interpreted in real time during a patient’s consultation, has been described as the ‘stethoscope of the future’.1 Portable ultrasound devices are becoming smaller, more sensitive, and more affordable, with handheld options costing only a few thousand pounds. As a result, interest in PoC-US as an add-on to the traditional clinical assessment of patients is growing,2 and basic training is now included in the undergraduate medical curriculum of some UK universities. This leads to the question: could PoC-US have a role in UK primary care, alongside the traditional clinical examination and symptom appraisal?The introduction of PoC-US in general practice could improve diagnostic pathways, leading to prompter referral and(or) treatment, and thereby contributing to better patient outcomes.However, its implementation faces many challenges. First, GPs would need enough training and exposure to ensure reliable identification, especially for rarer conditions. As PoC-US is highly user dependent, a quality assurance framework is necessary to ensure both the technical skills and appropriate interpretation and integration into clinical care. Second, workload pressures may make it difficult for primary care clinicians to offer an additional service. Furthermore, increased imaging may generate harms from incidental findings and overdiagnosis, and should be integrated into a quality development scheme to monitor and minimise these potential risks.Finally, there is little research on the use of PoC-US in family medicine, paucity of evidence-based …