The development of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS): Worldwide contributions and publication trends

Abstract

Purpose: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) concept is widely used in both emergency medicine (EM) and intensive care medicine (ICM). This study aimed to analyze the scientific articles on POCUS published by statistical methods and to evaluate the subject holistically. Methods: This study is bibliographical, descriptive, and analytical in nature. POCUS-related publications published were downloaded from the Web of Science (WoS) database and analyzed using statistical methods. Network visualization maps were used to identify trending topics. Results: The literature search revealed 5714 publications on POCUS in the WoS database. According to the WoS categorization of publications, the most common categories were emergency medicine (1751; 30.6%). The topics studied in recent years were deep learning, artificial intelligence, COVID-19, acute kidney injury, heart failure, and telemedicine. Conclusion: This study on POCUS, we summarized 5714 publications published. According to our results, the trending topics in POCUS research in recent years include deep learning, artificial intelligence, COVID-19, acute kidney injury, heart failure and telemedicine. Our study can be a valuable resource for clinicians and scientists who are working on POCUS or will be working on POCUS in the future.