University of Calgary IMPOCUS Fellowship Program Information

Our Internal Medicine Point-of-Care Ultrasound (IMPOCUS) Fellowship training program began in January 2017 and offers a unique one-year training program designed to give graduates of internal medicine residency programs the skills, knowledge, and expertise to become ultrasound program directors and leaders in the field of IMPOCUS.  Our fellowship is taught by a number of POCUS-fellowship trained  faculty who are national and international POCUS leaders, with expertise not only in POCUS, but also in research and medical education.  

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Andrew Liteplo and the Massachusetts General Hospital Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship program after which our program is closely modelled.

The three primary components of our fellowship program include:

1)  Education:  You will learn image acquisition, interpretation, and clinical integration skills for both basic and advanced IMPOCUS applications; develop and refine evidence-based medicine and literature appraisal skills; develop teaching skills and a lecture portfolio; contribute to the program's educational mission; apply evidence-based education principles in curriculum development and implementation; learn to attend as junior attending on a IMPOCUS and procedural consultation service. We expect our fellows to complete a minimum of 500-800 scans during their training. 

2)  Program Administration:  You will learn about the critical components and infrastructure required to run an IMPOCUS program and how to best utilize information technologies for image archiving, database management, and quality assurance.

3)  Research and Scholarly Activities:  You will participate in independent research projects and/or scholarly activities. 

For IMPOCUS fellows who meet the requirements for certifications during their training,  our training can provide the pre-requisites to challenge the following certificates and credentials:  RDMS, RDCS, and CPOCUS IP and TI. 

The fellowship is an estimated  6-12- month program, but duration may vary depending on competencies achieved. This is an unfunded training position.  Therefore, if you are not in an University of Calgary subspecialty training position, your home training program must approve and be willing to support your time spent in our training program. 

Fellowship Program Directors:  Drs. Leo Smyth, Janeve Desy, and Irene Ma

Interested in applying?  

Please submit to:  ima@ucalgary.ca

1)  your CV

2)  a letter of intent, indicating the approximate duration of training you are seeking and approximately time frame for your training in your letter of intent

3)  a letter of support from your program director (PD) (or if you are a practicing physician, a letter of support from a division/department chief or colleague). 

For University of Calgary incoming and present general internal medicine fellows, you do not need a formal letter of support from the PD , but an email from the GIM PD confirming his approval of your application is required in its place.  

A successful candidate is one who will begin the IMPOCUS training in their PGY4-5 year (or practicing physician in internal medicine or a related subspecialty), a strong clinician with excellent medical knowledge, clinical reasoning, leadership, and communication skills.  A successful candidate is ideally someone who is intended to lead POCUS programs.  Basic POCUS skills, while helpful, is not required. Strong clinical skills, on the other hand, are critical. 

Our deadline for applying to the 2025-2026 fellowship cycle is December 1, 2024.  

Meet our team!