Harvard Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship

Overview

The Mass General Brigham Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship program began in 2007 and is recognized nationally for its excellent clinical and research training. The program was presented the inaugural national “Stellar Clinical Ultrasound Fellowship” award from the Society for Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships in 2020, a reflection of the dedication of the program to training well-rounded, clinically guided leaders in the field of emergency ultrasound.

The program’s mission is multifaceted but is centered in training fellows equipped to lead ultrasound departments and divisions, advancing the field of clinical and emergency ultrasound across the world through education and research. The fellowship additionally is focused on ensuring graduates are fully equipped educators, leaders and researchers with robust time dedicated to each of these areas.

Our Program

The Harvard Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Mass General Brigham has been training ultrasound fellows since 2021. Prior to the merge, fellowship programs at both Massachusetts General Hospital (2007) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (2010) independently trained ultrasound fellows. This is a one-year program that aims to equip emergency medicine residency graduates with the expertise to become ultrasound program directors and leaders in the field. Additionally, the fellowship program frequently collaborates with other departments including Hospital Medicine, Rheumatology, Anesthesiology, Sports Medicine and Critical Care to enhance the education opportunities and multidisciplinary collaborative efforts using point-of-care ultrasound to care for patients. There are four components to the fellowship program:

• Developing skills in image acquisition, image interpretation and integration into clinical care for both basic and advanced emergency and point-of-care ultrasound applications
• Understanding the administrative aspects required to run an emergency ultrasound program, including technological innovations and learning how to best utilize them for image archiving and quality assurance
• Understanding the state of emergency ultrasound research by participating in weekly ultrasound journal club activities and developing an independent research project from its inception to publication
• Developing lecturing and teaching skills by developing an emergency ultrasound lecture portfolio and contributing to the program’s educational mission

Our program is particularly focused on preparing leaders within the field. Our goal is to equip you with the tools you would need to become an ultrasound director of any emergency department, with all the skill sets, teaching and leadership experiences, and image acquisition skills necessary to do this job with great success. Because of this, the educational component of the Ultrasound Fellowship involves a large amount of both learning and teaching ultrasound within the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency (HAEMR).

Requirements

Program requirements are based on the emergency ultrasound fellowship accreditation council (EUFAC) guidelines.

Curriculum

The educational component of the Ultrasound Fellowship involves a large amount of learning and teaching ultrasound and conducting ultrasound research and clinical advancements.

Learning Highlights

• Lecture series covering a longitudinal curriculum on core ultrasound applications.
• In-depth analysis of standard applications and advanced applications, with a focus on the evidence behind what we do.
• Journal club - review of recent literature
• Research updates during dedicated weekly research meetings.
• Image and video processing
• Scan review
• Scanning shifts with directors
• Independent reading
• Hospital-wide learning opportunities with sonographers at the MGH Vascular Lab, Rheumatology Clinic, OBGYN 1st and 2nd trimester, Gastroenterology IBD clinic, Cardiac Echocardiography lab, and Operating Room for regional anesthesia and TEE.
• Independent scanning
• Completion and review of a minimum of 1,000 scans.
• Dr. Al Jalbout, Dr. Eke, and Senior APPs Springer, Dubsky, and Morone teaching at EUSEM in Berlin.

Teaching Highlights

• Assist with teaching resident rotation: four-week rotation as PGY-1 and for Harvard Medical School students.
• Develop and give core lecture series to HAEMR residents (Ultrasound 101).
• Teaching to other services (Surgery, ICU, Pediatrics, Neurology).
• Outside courses to community hospitals
• Harvard CME courses
• Faculty credentialing process
• International courses: EUSEM, IEDLI, AFEM , SonoCrit Turkey
• Rotation for visiting residents
• Opportunities for international rotations though Mass General Center for Global Health & Disaster Response, or many other international contacts.
• Simulation opportunities through the MGH Learning lab, STRATUS Simulation Center at BWH, with access Vimedix simulators (with TEE).

Clinical Experience

The Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department are busy, high-acuity Level 1 Trauma Centers, with an annual census of more than 120,000 patients. The fellowship is designed as a part-time attending position at both emergency departments, working approximately 16 hours a week, supervising EM (PGY1-4), pediatric, anesthesia, orthopedic, ENT, internal medicine residents and advanced practice providers. In addition, fellows are expected to devote approximately 24 hours a week to ultrasound related activities. Responsibilities include but are not limited to image acquisition (independently, with residents, and with directors), scan review, lecturing, participation and development of outside courses, attendance at administrative and financial meetings, and research (development of an independent project and participation in ongoing studies).

Research Experience

There are numerous research opportunities within the departments as well as with faculty throughout Mass General, Brigham and Women’s and the Harvard Medical School. In the past ten years, faculty and fellows have produced research and published more than 100 articles on point-of-care ultrasound. These are frequently awarded for the best articles of the year by the SAEM Academy of Emergency Ultrasound. The most recent projects have focused on teleultrasound for POCUS education, TEE in cardiac resuscitation, artificial intelligence in POCUS applications, lung ultrasound for COVID-19, development of nomograms on small bowel obstruction and a series of projects on procedural safety including innovative trans gluteal sciatic nerve block and prehospital training in ultrasound guided IV insertion.

In addition, our fellows have taught extensively in many resource-limited international settings such as Rwanda, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Lesotho, Ghana, Kenya, and Navajo Nation. We believe in the valuable impact that point-of-care ultrasound can make in these settings on patient care and outcomes as well as on resource utilization. For interested applicants there are many opportunities to become involved in teaching and researching the potential in these settings.

How to Apply

CV, cover letter and three letters of recommendation are required to complete an application. Interviews and final decisions are made based on SCUF and Match instructions and deadlines.

For IMGs, a letter of interest, three letters of recommendation, including a letter from the residency program director, and a current curriculum vitae should be submitted to Dr. Al Jalbout and Dr. Selame, Co-Fellowship Directors at naljalbout@mgh.harvard.edu and lselame@bwh.harvard.edu. Interviews are conducted in the fall, and decisions are usually made in November.

Fellowships and Faculty Contacts:

Andrew Liteplo, MD – MGB Chief of Emergency Ultrasound

Andrew Liteplo, MD, is the Chief of the Mass General Brigham Division of Emergency Ultrasound. He founded the fellowship in 2007 and served as the fellowship director until 2018. He is a past president of the AEUS of SAEM, and an elected board member of SCUF. He enjoys innovation and created SonoGames, the SCUF Annual Conference and the AEUS Research Awards (SAEMMYs). He has lectured extensively nationally and internationally. His primary research interests include lung ultrasound, critical care ultrasound, ultrasound education and artificial intelligence. Dr. Liteplo has been recognized with several prestigious national awards, including the AEUS Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014, the Most Prolific Researcher in 2018 and 2021, and the AEUS Distinguished Service Award in 2019. View Dr. Liteplo's most recent publications at PubMed.

Nour Al Jalbout, MD – Co-Director, Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship

Nour Al Jalbout, MD, is the Co-Fellowship Director of the Harvard Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Mass General Brigham and Co-Program Director of the International Fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound Research. She also serves as the Medical Director for Quality and Safety in the Massachusetts General Hospital Emergency Department, where she practices clinically as an emergency physician. In addition, Dr. Al Jalbout holds an academic appointment as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Al Jalbout completed her residency at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2019, serving as Chief Resident during the 2017–2018 academic year. Following residency, she joined the faculty at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, where she practiced for two years and expanded her international experience. In 2021, she returned to Boston as an inaugural fellow in the newly merged Mass General Brigham Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship.

Her academic interests center on the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in critical care resuscitation, with a particular focus on transesophageal echocardiography (TEE), procedural innovation, and simulation-based education. She is passionate about advancing ultrasound training and integrating it into emergency and critical care settings. She has lectured nationally and internationally on POCUS integration and education and has become an expert leader in the field.

A dedicated educator and leader, Dr. Al Jalbout was recognized with the 2024 Susan Wilcox Education and Teaching Award by the MGH Emergency Department and the 2025 Early Educator Award from the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). View Dr. Al Jalbout's most recent publications.

Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and biking.

Lauren Selame, MD – Co-Director, Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship

Lauren Selame, MD,  is an Emergency Medicine physician practicing as clinical faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. She completed her medical degree at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, PA), specialty training in Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (Philadelphia, PA), and Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA).  She holds academic roles as Co-Fellowship Director of the Harvard Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at Mass General Brigham and Co-Program Director of the International Fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound Research at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Selame is Ultrasound Faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital Emergency Departments. In addition, Dr. Selame holds an academic appointment as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical and research interests include integration of effective diagnostic POCUS, procedural ultrasound, TEE, and integration of simulation. She is part of the national teaching faculty for the Resuscitative TEE Project. Recent honors include her 2021 SCUF Newbie Award, 2022 SAEM AEUS Rising Star Award, 2024 Clinical Excellence Award from Brigham and Women’s Emergency Department, and 2025 Distinguished Clinician Award from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Hamid Shokoohi, MD, MPH – MGH Director of Emergency Ultrasound

Hamid Shokoohi, MD, MPH, FAEMUS, FACEP is the Director of Emergency Ultrasound at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He completed his residency and fellowship at The George Washington University in 2007 and currently practices in Boston, MA.

Dr. Shokoohi is an internationally recognized leader in point-of-care ultrasound, with over 180 peer-reviewed publications and a sustained commitment to advancing emergency medicine through education, research, and clinical innovation. His work has significantly influenced the application of ultrasound in critical care settings including shock, respiratory distress, and cardiac failure as well as its integration into bedside procedures such as transesophageal echocardiography, vascular access, and ultrasound-guided nerve blocks. His scholarly interests increasingly focus on the intersection of artificial intelligence and diagnostic ultrasound, exploring how technology can enhance accuracy, efficiency, and clinical decision-making at the bedside.

Beyond his institutional roles, Dr. Shokoohi has served as a scientific advisor and co-chair for WINFOCUS and the European Society of Translational Medicine (EUSTM) and has helped establish ultrasound education programs in underserved regions globally. His work reflects a deep commitment to equity in medical training and global health.

Dr. Shokoohi’s contributions have been recognized with numerous national honors, including the AEUS National Research Award, Academic Excellence Award, Distinguished Service Award, Most Prolific Researcher Award, Teaching Excellence Award, and the Titan in Research Award. Between 2015 and 2025, he has also received 10 SAEMMIES awards for his impactful research. His ongoing efforts continue to shape the future of emergency ultrasound and inspire the next generation of physician leaders.

Nicole Duggan, MD – BWH Director of Emergency Ultrasound

Nicole Duggan, MD, is a clinical instructor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the BWH Director of Emergency Ultrasound and the Director of research at BWH for the MGB EM ultrasound Division. After her post-graduate training at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program, she completed clinical fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound at the Harvard Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship. Dr. Duggan’s work focuses on developing innovative applications for point-of-care ultrasound, and, more broadly, integrating such advances and technology into clinical care. Her current work focuses on developing machine learning models for ultrasound-based procedures such as peripheral nerve blocks and intravenous access, as well as developing objective measures of procedural competency. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she loves spending her as much of her free time outdoors hiking, biking, and traveling.

Onyinyechi Eki, MD – MGB Director of Global Ultrasound

Onyinyechi Eke, MD, is a faculty and director of global ultrasound in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Eke completed her residency at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, IL and her Clinical Ultrasound Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2020. Dr. Eke’s global ultrasound program has an inspirational mission on increasing the healing capacity of health care providers in resource-limited areas by providing training and mentorship. Her research interests include the development of point-of-care ultrasound education and training in resource-limited settings, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the efficient utilization of point-of-care ultrasound to facilitate patient care in the emergency department. View Dr. Eke's most recent publications in PubMed.

Sigmund Kharasch, MD – Director of Pediatric Ultrasound

Sigmund Kharasch, MD, is a 2018 graduate of the Mass General Ultrasound Fellowship and is currently the director of pediatric emergency ultrasound in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Mass General. Dr. Kharasch is greatly admired for his inspirational work and teaching around the world. He devotes his time, experiences and imagination to help others globally. He is entitled to the most inspirational and of course the oldest ultrasound fellow in our program. Teaching generations of students and residents, student is the last title Sig is giving up on. Sig’s research interest is in lung and diaphragm ultrasound in children with asthma, chronic lung disease and children requiring long-term mechanical ventilation. Sig is an avid student of classical piano in Boston. View Dr. Kharasch's most recent publications in PubMed.

Arjun Balakumar, MD, MS – Director of Resident Ultrasound Education

Arjun Balakumar, MD, MS, is an ultrasound fellow with a strong passion for ultrasound education and its use in resource limited settings. Dr. Balakumar focused his fellowship on bedside teaching and global health education. He completed undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, his master's at Johns Hopkins University, medical school at Thomas Jefferson University, and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital. Outside of medicine, he is an avid wildlife photographer and professional SCUBA diver, with a passion for the natural world, as well as a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan.