ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Juana Nicoll Capizzano, MD; Paul Bornemann, MD; Laurel Gutierrez, MD; Whitney A. Townsend, MLIS; John Holkeboer, BA; Blake Reynolds, BS, MPH; Diane M. Harper, MD, MPH, MS
Corresponding Author: Juana Nicoll Capizzano, MD; University of Michigan Family Medicine.
Email: jcapizza@med.umich.edu
DOI: 10.3122/jabfm.2025.250489R3
Keywords: Patient-Centered Care, POCUS, Point-of-Care Systems, Point of Care Testing, Primary Health Care, Scoping Review
Dates: Submitted: 12/24/2025; Revised: 3/31/2026; 6/19/2026; 8/7/2026; Accepted: 9/14/2026
Status: In Press.
BACKGROUND: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is increasingly used as a focused diagnostic adjunct in primary care, but the literature spans diverse applications, training models, operators, and outcomes.
OBJECTIVE: To map POCUS evidence in continuity primary care across training and competency; organ-system applications; diagnostic performance, agreement, timeliness, and clinical management; barriers and facilitators; and patient-centered care.
METHODS: We conducted a Joanna Briggs Institute-informed scoping review following PRISMA ScR. Five databases, ClinicalTrials.gov, citation searching, and selected conference sources were searched for English-language original-data reports published from January 1, 2010, through August 11, 2025. Eligible settings were longitudinal, first-contact, generalist care. The counting unit was an eligible report or source of evidence; multiple reports from one cohort or program could be retained when they provided distinct eligible outcomes.
RESULTS: We identified 12,109 records. After duplicate removal, 7,409 titles and abstracts were screened and 1,574 full texts were assessed; 266 records advanced to extraction. Final eligibility reconciliation yielded 255 included reports. Reports mapped to training and competency (n=143), organ-system applications (n=207), diagnostic performance, agreement, timeliness, or management (n=89), barriers or facilitators (n=92), and patient-centered care (n=15).
CONCLUSIONS: POCUS has been studied broadly in continuity primary care, but decision-ready evidence is uneven. Future work should connect competency and quality-assurance systems with diagnostic, management, patient-centered, economic, safety, and equity outcomes.