Queen’s University Point-of-Care Ultrasound Fellowship | Department of Emergency Medicine | School of Medicine

QSONiC POCUS Fellowship

The Queen’s University Point-of-care Sonography Collaborative (QSONiC) Fellowship is a mixed-discipline POCUS training program delivered through a partnership between the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Anesthesiology.

This joint initiative brings together faculty expertise and clinical experience across multiple specialties to provide fellows with comprehensive, hands-on training in point-of-care ultrasonography (POCUS).

POCUS has become the standard of care for timely and accurate evaluation and treatment of acutely ill patients. Most acute care disciplines require mastery of basic POCUS skills, but many specialties have advanced expertise in POCUS applications specific to their discipline. By capitalizing on the expertise and experience of POCUS educators from varied specialties, the QSONiC POCUS fellowship program at Queen’s University provides learners with training in the true breadth of POCUS applications. This comprehensive, multidisciplinary model is unique among other POCUS training programs in Canada.

The QSONiC fellowship training at Queen’s focuses on mastery of the fundamental aspects of POCUS: image acquisition, image interpretation, and clinical integration for a full scope of acute care POCUS applications. Beyond developing practical POCUS mastery, fellows learn how to create POCUS workshops, develop curricula, manage a training program, and provide teaching, quality improvement and feedback to learners. Graduates of the QSONiC fellowship will be well equipped to become POCUS Directors and leaders in POCUS education.

This training is delivered collaboratively through POCUS rotations in Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Anaesthesiology, Cardiology, Pain Medicine and the Fetal Assessment Unit. A comprehensive curriculum is delivered through academic half-day seminars, image review rounds, content creation workshops, journal clubs, and a series of procedural cadaver workshops. Graduates will have competence in full body diagnostic POCUS, including transesophageal echocardiography and procedural POCUS. Most graduates challenge the National Board of Echocardiography’s Examination of Special Competence in Critical Care Echocardiography and/or the Examination of Special Competence in Advanced Perioperative Transesophageal Echocardiography.

The QSonic Fellowship is 12-months in duration. Fellows rotate through various clinical POCUS rotations but continue to work half-time clinically in their home discipline throughout the fellowship.

What does a typical training year look like?

Fellows rotate through a variety of 4-week POCUS rotations, the exact emphasis and number of each being customized to accommodate the needs of each fellow’s discipline. A fellow’s time is divided (50:50) between clinical service to their home discipline and time devoted to POCUS activities. POCUS rotations are in emergency medicine, critical care medicine, anaesthesiology/transesophageal echo, echocardiography, and content creation. Of note, fellows entering from a critical care discipline would only provide clinical service in the ICU, fellows from emergency medicine would only provide clinical service in emergency medicine, and fellows from anaesthesiology would only provide clinical service in anaesthesiology. Horizontal rotations are in pain medicine and obstetrics/fetal assessment. A robust curriculum of protected academic half-days consists of lectures, cadaver labs, journal clubs, teaching workshops, image review and echocardiography rounds. Electives in pediatric emergency medicine POCUS are available if interested.

Who is Eligible?

The QSONiC fellowship is open to any physician specialist that provides acute care to patients. Typically, candidates are from Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine (either CCFP or FRCP), Anaesthesiology and Internal Medicine. However, compelling candidates from any discipline will be considered.

Canadian fellows who have an independent CPSO practice license are typically funded through the Queen’s University’s department of their home speciality while performing approximately 50% full-time clinical duties in that discipline. Availability of funded positions is dependent on the current needs of that department and the suitability of the fellow for that practice at Queen’s University and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC). Opportunities for Canadian fellows to self-fund their fellowship while clinically working elsewhere are considered if funded positions through Queen’s are unavailable.

Canadian FRCP PGY5 Emergency Medicine Residents and General Internal Medicine Fellows can do our fellowship as an area of concentrated expertise during their regular EM/GIM training while continuing their clinical roles in their home program at an approximate 50% reduction.

International sponsored trainees are eligible for the fellowship but must be sponsored by an acceptable source of funding (eg. foreign government, foreign government agencies, health related charitable organizations or department). Queen’s University has postgraduate training agreements with the following countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Interested candidates who are not mentioned in this list of countries would need to contact us directly to see if their specific department of discipline has the ability/interest to fund an international fellow. Please see PGME Clinical Fellowships for specific International Application information from the Postgraduate Medicine Office of Queen’s University.

Contact us

QSONiC Fellowship contact information

Email: EmergencyMedicineProgram@kingstonhsc.ca

Eligibility Requirements to Begin Training

Eligibility Requirements to Begin Training

Eligibility Requirements to Begin Training

Royal College certification in any primary specialty providing management in acute care settings, or College of Family Physicians of Canada certification, or equivalent.

OR

Eligibility for the Royal College certification examination in any primary specialty, or eligibility for the College of Family Physicians of Canada certification examination.

OR

Registration in a Royal College-accredited residency program in emergency medicine or general internal medicine with a minimum of three years of training and at least 2 months of training in an intensive care unit setting.

AND

Completion of at least one month of dedicated training in point-of-care ultrasound as a rotation, or proof of equivalent cumulative experience in the fundamentals of point-of-care ultrasound throughout training

Competitive candidates will have a demonstrated interest in point-of-care ultrasound with AT LEAST ONE of the following:

Career plans to actively incorporate ultrasound into clinical practice
Career plans in clinical research, medical education, or quality improvement where POCUS will be the focus of future scholarly work
Medical education experience or expertise
Experience/interest in Medical Leadership or Medical Innovation

How to Apply

Application Details

Training ideally begins July 1^st to align with the horizontal curriculum. However, off-cycle candidates could be considered for a mid-January start if necessary.

Please look at the Queen’s PGME site regarding Canadian and International Applications: https://meds.queensu.ca/academics/postgraduate/prospective/admission/fellowships

Interested Canadian applicants are encouraged to submit the following by the due dates listed below for the year before they wish to begin their fellowship training:

Curriculum vitae
Personal Statement
Copy of Valid Passport or Proof of Canadian Permanent Residency
Copy of Medical Degree
Educational Transcripts
Copy of Final Special Certification
Three letters of reference on official letterhead that can attest to the candidates clinical and collegial performance, as well as potential to be a successful POCUS fellow.
Proof of successful completion of the MCCQE examination

Interested International applicants should review the Queen’s PGME requirements here.

Of note, if you are applying from a country with a training agreement between Queen’s and a sponsoring agency (eg. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, or UAE) you must apply through the Sponsored VISA Trainee process outlined here, under Admissions.

Canadian Applicant Due Date: September 30^th before the following July 1^st start date.

International Applicant Due Date: August 31^st before the following July 1^st start date.

To submit an application or for more information about the Queen’s POCUS Fellowship, please email: EmergencyMedicineProgram@kingstonhsc.ca

Current Fellows

Dr. Ken Choi

Dr. Taryn Davidson

Dr. Sharleen Hoffe

Past Graduates

Graduation Year	Fellows
2026	Dr. James Ahlin (Critical Care and Emergency Medicine) Dr. Andrew Armstrong (Emergency Medicine) Dr. Hayley Manlove (Emergency Medicine) Dr. Tia Warkentin (Emergency Medicine)
2025	Dr. Kim Vella (Emergency Medicine)
2024	Dr. Dana Archibald (Anaesthesiology) Dr. Angela Builes (Anaesthesiology) Dr. Matthew Piaseczny (Emergency Medicine)
2023	Dr. Taylor Nikel (Critical Care and Emergency Medicine) Dr. Shahad Sheerah (Emergency Medicine)
2022	Dr. Christine Hanna (Emergency Medicine) Dr. Tatiana Vukadinovic (Emergency Medicine)
2021	Dr. Sarah Maxwell (Anaesthesiology)