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E7 40:31

MSK Ultrasound Learning Curve: What Changes Across Your First 100 Scans

How many scans before MSK ultrasound clicks? Colin Rigney and Ryan Martin map the learning curve across your first 100 scans, from the what am I looking at phase to real diagnostic confidence.

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How many scans does it take before MSK ultrasound starts to click? Colin Rigney and Ryan Martin get honest about their own first 100 scans: the moment Ryan nearly quit, the mentors who kept them going, and the phases every learner moves through on the ultrasound learning curve, from taking 50 pictures of a shoulder to streamlining your sequence to finally bringing real assessment into the scan.

What this episode covers:

  • The ultrasound learning curve in phases: 0 to 25, 25 to 50, 50 to 75 and on to 100 scans
  • Why the first 25 scans are the "what am I looking at" phase
  • Don't sleep on the physics: knobology, gain, focal zone and depth from day one
  • Why even a strong anatomy background gets humbled by sonoanatomy
  • Building trust with a mentor, and why you cannot second guess the coaching
  • Moving from technician to diagnostician between 50 and 75 scans
  • A near miss: the gastrocnemius tear that looked like a Baker's cyst
  • The anterior hip, the deep gluteal space, and why piriformis is not a diagnosis
  • The AMSKU Annual Global Summit, Saturday 5 December 2026

Links mentioned in this episode:

New episodes every Tuesday. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Chapters:
0:00 Harder than you think
0:27 From Probe to Practice
1:20 What your first 100 scans really teach you
1:56 Behind the eight ball: when Ryan nearly quit
4:13 Mentors, and getting the nod
5:15 Why the shoulder clicks first
7:25 Don't sleep on the physics
8:29 Practicing for a job that didn't exist yet
10:34 Know your equipment
11:43 Humbled by anatomy on ultrasound
13:47 Unlearning three dimensional expectations
14:51 Old habits and trusting the coaching
15:50 Scans 0 to 25: what am I looking at?
17:46 Scans 50 to 75: from technician to diagnostician
20:37 A good plan executed sooner
21:00 50 stellate ganglion blocks: a physician's learning curve
24:34 The near miss: a gastroc tear, not a Baker's cyst
28:25 The anterior hip Bermuda Triangle
30:53 Not everything is the piriformis
32:39 The AMSKU Annual Global Summit
35:34 Raising the standard
37:59 Why we do this
38:45 Voices from the 2025 summit