Thomas Plappert

Sonography is well established in our emergency departments. As a pre-hospital emergency physician in rescue missions, I use ultrasound to differentiate among the causes of dyspnea, shock, chest pain, or cardiac arrest. I can come to better, and often faster, decisions with ultrasound compared to a history or physical examination for patients in a critical condition. I can also rule out life-threatening issues in many other cases and safely hand over these patients to paramedics or their family physician. Pre-hospital ultrasound adds value to our work, and for many patients, it’s the missing link in the chain of survival. And as the first Clarius-users for EMS in Germany, we have hundreds of rescue missions with a brilliant ultrasound on board.