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21st Century Stethoscopes

In addition to a stethoscope around the neck, you may see a TTUHSC medical student pull an ultrasound machine out of their pocket to check a patient’s vitals. In the future, you may see doctors swap out the ultrasound technology for the stethoscope permanently. In 2012, Jongyeol Kim, MD, professor in the departments of Neurology and Medical Education, wanted to enhance the medical education experience by bringing ultrasound technology to the school. 

“We (TTUHSC) are the only School of Medicine with 50 VSCANS (pocket ultrasounds) for medical education in the nation,” Kim said.

Point-of-care ultrasounds, as they’re commonly known, can be used in the classroom to help the students see anatomy in motion. First-year medical students scan body parts during gross anatomy while dissecting and cross-sectioning the human body to understand how the muscles, nerves and organs work in real time.

Ultrasound technology is integrated throughout the first- and second-year curriculum with plans to move it into third and fourth and were among the first medical schools in the nation to do so.

The ultrasound machines — purchased with funding Kim received from the Texas Higher Education Assistance Fund — are available to all schools. School of Nursing uses them, for example, routinely in nurse practitioner classes, and Sue Ann Lee, PhD, CCC-SLP, associate professor in the School of Health Professions, worked with Kim to develop protocol for ultrasound technology use in speech therapy.