Practical POCUS

09/11/2026

25 years later, we remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001. We honor the extraordinary courage, service, and sacrifice shown that day and in the years that followed.

We remain grateful to the first responders, healthcare professionals, service members, and countless others who answered the call.

We will never forget.

08/28/2026

MISSOURI — FINAL DAY FOR FREE POCUS ENROLLMENT

Today is the final day to enroll in our grant-funded online POCUS course at no cost.

If you lead an EMS agency, hospital department, clinic, healthcare program, or other Missouri healthcare organization, we can bulk enroll your team for you today.

You do not need to have ultrasound equipment yet or have a finalized training plan. There is no future obligation from enrolling.

Send us a roster with name, email, and license/role — or send whatever employee roster you already have and we can work from it.

Individuals can also enroll directly at the link below.

Please share this with a Missouri healthcare leader who may have people we can still include before enrollment closes today.

We want you to succeed and master POCUS. We offer you training specifically on portable ultrasound devices that will show you how to take your use of bedside ultrasound to the next level.

08/26/2026

Where does POCUS fit into Rural Health Transformation in your community?

We're gathering input from EMS, hospitals, rural clinics, FQHCs, health systems, and other healthcare organizations nationwide to better understand needs related to POCUS training, equipment, implementation, and ongoing support.

You don't need to have a plan already developed — we want to hear what your organization actually needs.

👉 Interest & Needs Form in the comments.

What is the biggest barrier to expanding POCUS where you work — training, equipment, implementation, or something else?

08/25/2026

🚨 FINAL CALL: FREE MISSOURI POCUS TRAINING 🚨

Registration for our grant-funded Missouri online POCUS course closes Friday, August 28.

If you live or work in Missouri healthcare—or live in Missouri and are preparing to enter healthcare—you may be eligible to take our Portable Ultrasound Master Class at no cost.

This is an approximately 24-hour comprehensive online POCUS course covering cardiac, lung, vascular/DVT, ultrasound-guided IV access, eFAST, RUSH, abdominal and pelvic ultrasound, ocular, MSK/soft tissue, procedures, implementation topics, and more.

Registration closes Friday.

👉 https://courses.practicalpocus.com/courses/MissouriOnline2026

Even if you've already registered, please share this with your coworkers, students, EMS agency, hospital, clinic, or healthcare program. Help us make one final push to get this opportunity into the hands of Missouri healthcare professionals.

We want you to succeed and master POCUS. We offer you training specifically on portable ultrasound devices that will show you how to take your use of bedside ultrasound to the next level.

08/13/2026

EMS Captain Shawn Karl has been an amazing and valuable instructor to our company. Through his efforts and others from his fire district, they truly transformed POCUS and EMS education as a whole throughout the St. Louis region and beyond. We are very proud to see the 2026 Missouri EMS Association Paramedic of the Year be awarded to Shawn Karl.

Additionally, Monarch Fire Protection District has shown us all how a fire district can be known for its advanced EMS care. They are truly state of the art and are leading the way. With fantastic leadership including Chief Nick Smith and Medical Director Michael DeFilippo, they will continue making those improvements.

When we started our statewide ARPA grant, Monarch was the very first agency we trained. Captain Shawn Karl was our first Train the Trainer (TtT) participant who became one of our instructors. Since then, more of Monarch’s paramedics have become instructors with us, and they now help other agencies throughout the country do the same.

We look forward to our continued collaboration and partnership with Monarch Fire Protection District and congratulate them on their success!

We are proud to announce The Monarch Fire Protection District has been named the 2026 Missouri EMS Association EMS Agency of the Year.

This is the first time Monarch has received this award and one of the few times a fire-based EMS district has been given this honor.

This recognition belongs to the men and women of Monarch FPD who show up every shift to take care of those in need. The ones who make the hard calls, comfort the scared, and stand with our community in their worst moments. This award belongs to them.

We also want to thank the physicians, partner agencies, and mentors across our region who have shared their knowledge with us and helped shape our path. None of this happens in isolation. We’ve learned from people who were generous enough to teach us.

We are very proud of this moment, and are excited to share this with our community. What matters most to us is patient outcomes and the strength of the relationships we build across our healthcare community. That work will continue tomorrow, the same as it does today.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey so far. We’re just getting started.

05/15/2026

It is easy to forget the numerous ways that POCUS can be used. Not only in EMS, but throughout healthcare. Chip Lange points out that this is an underutilized tool for a wide range of patient presentations.

05/14/2026

Have you ever had a patient that POCUS helped you with identifying critical pathology in a patient you weren’t expecting to find it in?

On The Firehouse Medic Podcast, Chip Lange discusses one such scenario and how POCUS made the difference in a timely diagnosis.

05/12/2026

Want to know how point of care ultrasound (POCUS) can be used by EMS? Chip Lange went on to The Firehouse Medic Podcast to speak on how POCUS is changing the healthcare landscape in EMS.

In Episodes 4 & 5, Deputy Chief of EMS Training Darick Day joins Chip Lange, CEO of Practical POCUS, to break down how POCUS is helping providers make faster decisions, improve patient care, and bring hospital-level diagnostics to the field.

If you’ve ever wondered where EMS is headed next… this is it.

🎧 Episodes 4 & 5 available now.

08/05/2025

🧠 POCUS Tip Tuesday

💡 Struggling to see that lung sliding?

Try using a high frequency linear probe first, keep your probe oriented toward the head, look for the ribs, and remember:

➡️ You can use Doppler to help you better visualize pleural sliding between the rib shadows.

And yes, we love seeing those A-lines, B-lines, and C-lines … if you know what they mean 😉

08/04/2025

🔍 What Is Practical POCUS?

We’re not just teaching a skill — we’re changing how care is delivered.