DIBL Student Nathan Wiedemann to present at the Society of Critical Care Medicine 2017 Annual Congress

A fourth-year medical student at the University of Louisville has led a group of researchers from three universities in creating a financial model to determine the financial impact of implementing a POCUS in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Nathan Wiedemann will present results from the study “A Financial Model for Point-of-Care Ultrasound in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit” at the Society of Critical Care Medicine Annual Congress in Honolulu, Hawaii in January, 2017.

Nathan and senior investigator In K. Kim, M.D., MBA, of UofL’s Department of Pediatrics Emergency Medicine Division, found that implementation of a POCUS billing and reimbursement program can lead to a positive net income for PICUs if an ultrasound machine is already in place or ultrasound costs are offset by a donation or grant. This financial model may help PICUs to identify potential financial barriers in order to adopt this technology.

Nathan is enrolled in the UofL School of Medicine’s Distinction Track in Business and Leadership. Directed by Dr. Kim and Brad Sutton, M.D., MBA, the track prepares medical students with a vital set of economic and business skills along with their medical education, integrating business instruction with the medical curriculum throughout the four years of medical school.

U of L collaborators include Dr. Michael Ruppe from the Department of Pediatric Critical Care, Dr. Benjamin Foster from the College of Business, and Gary Southard.

External Collaborators on the project include Drs. Russ Horowitz and Zena Harris, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University; Dr. Cheung Kim, Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, Philadelphia, PA; and DIBL alum Dr. Alexander Thai, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL.