The appearance of high quality hand held ultrasound machines mean we will all have imaging available at our finger tips. This talk details a personal study on the impact this can have on families. It also outlines the frequency of incidental findings and raises questions regarding the risk:benefit ratio in the discovery of an incidental finding. The financial and emotional costs of incidental findings are also enormous. For those practicing POCUS – the simple single question focused form of bedside ultrasound – one should remain focused and not be distracted by incidental findings you are not qualified or taught to recognise. Communication regarding the limitations of your scan are far more important. In those with advanced ultrasound education identification and further consideration of incidental findings is appropriate.
