Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is the natural progression of what Laennec started over 200 years ago, a tool he would undoubtedly add to his diagnostic repertoire were he able to, as he did with Auenbrugger’s percussion or Hippocrates’s succussion.

It enables a clinician to digitally peel back the epidermis and observe the ecosystem of internal organs functioning in real-time, an ability our forefathers, foremothers, and stethoscope-monogamous colleagues could infer only through skin changes, audible noises, or subjective symptoms.

The pocket-sized ultrasound probe is a non-fiction device of today that was a science-fiction device of the 1960s.

This handheld scanner enables us all to be modern-day Dr. McCoys and instantly diagnose disease. With the introduction of multiple portable ultrasound probes on the market coupled with a 20x reduction in cost, the financial barrier to wide adoption is quickly being flattened.

To achieve an ionizing-radiation-free diagnostic utopia our patients need and our clinicians desire, we must continue to cross this chasm, one Po-kiss at a time.

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