patient transport in the new point-of-care testing paradigm [14]. From simple diagnostics and interventions, sonography has blossomed into more advanced applications, such as real-time guidance for bedside procedures (e.g., venous catheter placement, thoracentesis, lumbar puncture, and even endotracheal intubation) [15][16][17][18]. By facilitating a procedure that results in fewer unsuccessful interventional attempts and increases patient safety [19,20], sonography actively enhances the overall value of health-care services offered. Moreover, the marriage of miniaturization and minimally invasive techniques has also allowed for highresolution endocavitary studies, such as transesophageal echocardiography, endovascular ultrasound, endoscopic ultrasound, or transvaginal studies, giving medical providers detailed visualization of structures not previously seen outside of the operative theater [21][22][23][24][25][26]. This includes minimally invasive interventional applications [25][26][27]. Indeed, the increasing portability and affordability of this technology has allowed for its ever-expanding and evolving use, both within and outside the hospital's walls [28,29]. Now, ultrasound is finding a role even earlier in the care of the patient, including the pre-hospital arena where studies are performed by emergency medical providers to assist in decisions regarding triage and resource allocation [29]. Point-of-care sonography has been used successfully in developing countries, resource-poor areas, and mass casualty/disaster settings [6,30].Supporters of ultrasound technology have touted it to be the "new stethoscope" of the twenty-first century, moving it conceptually from its traditional role as a diagnostic modality to a necessary and central part of a good physical examination performed by a medical practitioner [31,32]. This moniker illustrates the ubiquitous nature of ultrasound application. Much like the basic use of the stethoscope, ultrasound technology can be effectively employed by technicians, In their first clinical application about 70 years ago, ultrasound machines were the size of automobiles and required water immersion of the patient to obtain shadowy suggestions of internal anatomy [1]. The physics involved were the same as those used to track icebergs and submarines, adapted by innovators to the delicate task of finding a tumor or looking for a gallstone [2,3]. Within 20 years of its initial clinical use, scientists had advanced the technology to a point where ultrasound machines were much more compact and offered image quality sufficient to evaluate the fetus in obstetrics care [4]. Since then, diagnostic applications of sonography have incrementally increased to encompass literally every field of health care, from physical medicine and rehabilitation to obstetrics and gynecology, emergency medicine to pulmonology, critical care to disaster management, oncology to trauma and emergency surgery, and pediatrics to gastroenterology [5][6][7][8][9][10].As clinical applications of ultrasound have expan...