Why I Teach Ultrasound the Way I Do
There is a moment in almost every session I run where I watch something click.
It might be the first time a clinician spots a follicle on screen, or the moment a patient finally understands what they are actually looking at during their fertility scan. Either way, I can see it happen in real time. And it happens because I do not teach ultrasound the way most people expect.
I teach it in a language everyone already knows.
The Tongue. The Grapes. The Seed.
When I am scanning the pelvis, whether I am sitting with a patient going through IVF or standing in front of a room full of clinicians working through their first fertility ultrasound training, I do not rely on textbook anatomy alone.
I reach for something far more memorable.
The uterus looks like a tongue. Picture it: that familiar shape, sitting centrally, with a thin line running right through the middle. That line is the endometrium, the equivalent of the central line you would see running down the middle of your tongue. Once you see it that way, you cannot unsee it.
The ovaries? A bunch of grapes.
And if you are looking for a follicle, a fluid filled sac that holds a developing egg, you are looking for a seeded grape. Plump, round, distinct from the cluster sitting around it.
These are not simplifications. They are precision tools for recognition. I use them because I know that when a clinician or a patient can picture something clearly, they remember it, they look for it, and they find it.
It Is the Same Across Everything I Teach
I bring this same approach to every area of ultrasound I work in, and the analogies change, but the principle never does.
In MSK, when I am teaching clinicians to scan the shoulder, I describe the supraspinatus as a bird's beak. That distinctive shape, once you see it, becomes your anchor point every single time you pick up a probe.
The goal is always the same. I want you to be able to close your eyes, picture the structure, and then find it on screen. That is the bridge between theory and real clinical confidence.
Once you have that visual anchor, everything else starts to make sense.
Why This Works for Everyone in the Room
I have spent more than 30 years at the intersection of clinical practice and education. Across fertility ultrasound, MSK, and facial aesthetics, I have seen what happens when teaching is overcomplicated. I have also seen what happens when it lands.
The analogies I use are not throwaway lines. They are the result of thousands of hours scanning, teaching, and watching people learn. They come from genuinely caring whether the person across from me, whether that is a patient or a practising clinician, leaves with real understanding rather than vague familiarity.
People often tell me that my sessions are engaging and that the feedback from workshops has been overwhelmingly positive. That matters to me, but what matters more is whether the learning sticks long after the session ends.
No matter the specialty, the goal is the same. I want the person across from me to leave with real understanding, not just a vague sense of what they saw on screen. That is what drives how I teach, and it is what I bring to every session.
If something here resonated with you, come learn with me.
