Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound - elearning for healthcare
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About the Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound programme

Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound (FAMUS) is the point of care ultrasound standard created specifically for acute medicine physicians to aid the management of the acutely unwell adult patient. It is endorsed by the Society for Acute Medicine and recognised by the Acute Internal Medicine (AIM) training committee as a specialist skill.

More information

The Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound (FAMUS) programme has been restructured to enable the specific topic areas to be completed individually. Please take the Ultrasound basics session which covers Ultrasound physics, artefacts and how to examine a patient with ultrasound. You can then undertake any of the following as individual sessions with an assessment.
  • Thoracic ultrasound: learn about artefacts encountered in chest ultrasound, the appearances of pneumonia and pleural effusion and how to use the Bedside Lung Ultrasound in Emergency (BLUE) protocol to assess patients with respiratory failure
  • Abdominal and renal ultrasound: learn about the seven point FAMUS abdominal scan to exclude obstructive uropathy and about free fluid in the abdomen and the best location to sample it
  • Deep vein thrombosis (DVT): learn about how to rule in a DVT.
  • Formal Assessment: You need 75% to pass and get your FAMUS certificate for each session.
An optional session is available for Vascular ultrasound which covers techniques for ultrasound guided needling.

Meet the team

  • Martin Dachsel

    Dr Martin Dachsel

    Acute Medicine Consultant, Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust
  • Nick Smallwood

    Dr Nick Smallwood

    Acute Medicine Consultant, Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust
  • Paul Tingle

    Paul Tingle

    TEL Education Content Programme Manager, NHS England
  • Angelina Montinaro

    Angelina Montinaro

    TEL Education Content Lead Learning Designer, NHS England

FAMUS committee

  • Nick Smallwood, Consultant Acute Medicine, Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust, Chair
  • Eugene Tabiowo, Consultant Acute Medicine, Cwm Taf University Health Board, Cardiff, Secretary
  • Andrew Walden, Consultant Acute and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Berkshire Hospital
  • Ramprasad Matsa, Consultant Acute and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Stoke University Hospital
  • Hefin Jones, Consultant Radiologist, Royal Stoke University Hospital
  • Alastair Gilmore, Consultant Acute Medicine, Wirral University Teaching Hospital
  • Philip Lawrenson, Consultant Acute Medicine, Wirral University Teaching Hospital
  • David Murday, Consultant Acute Medicine, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
  • Alex Horton, Consultant Radiologist, Royal Surrey County Hospital
  • Martin Dachsel, Consultant Acute Medicine, Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust
  • Jennie Stephens, Consultant Acute and Intensive Care Medicine, Royal Cornwall Hospital
  • Sneh Banik, Consultant Acute Medicine, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

How to access

In order to access the Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.

Register >

To view the Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Focused Acute Medicine Ultrasound programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.

elfh is a NHS England programme in partnership with the NHS and professional bodies