Meet the ED Ultrasound Director and Director of Ultrasound Medical Education: Dr. Edmund Hsu

By Andrew Kinoshita, Class of 2026

In the high-stakes realm of emergency medicine, every second counts, and accurate, rapid diagnosis can be the difference between life and death. Enter ultrasound, the unsung hero of the emergency room, capable of revealing critical information in real-time. Dr. Edmund Hsu is the new Director of Ultrasound in UCI's Department of Emergency Medicine and the Director of Ultrasound Medical Education. He completed a simulation fellowship and an ultrasound fellowship at UC Irvine, and his goal is to equip medical students and physicians with the skills and technology to make looking beneath the surface as easy as examining the skin. From trauma assessments to transesophageal echocardiography, ultrasound's versatility and immediacy empower healthcare professionals to make split-second decisions that save lives. This unassuming device has become an indispensable tool in the modern emergency room, revolutionizing the way we approach critical care and reshaping the story of resilience and hope in the face of emergencies.

Much like others drawn to the field of medicine, Dr. Hsu had family members who faced medical challenges. While certain healthcare scenarios unfolded gradually, it was the recognition that some of the most profound and urgent interventions occur within fleeting moments that ignited Dr. Hsu's passion for Emergency Medicine. This calling to make a difference during life's critical junctures predated even his clinical rotations in medical school while caring for his grandmother who suffered multiple strokes and a cardiac arrest.

Dr. Hsu was also exposed to ultrasound early on and its portability before medical school. As an undergraduate student at UCI, he traveled abroad to rural areas of the Yunnan province in China with a medical team to perform ultrasound screening for pediatric congenital heart defects. It was in these encounters that Dr. Hsu first grasped the potential of a portable, fast, and noninvasive imaging modality to revolutionize the way care is delivered. This paradigm shift has been evident in the growing number of systems over the past few years employing point-of-care ultrasound – not just for screening but also for diagnosing active pathologies and altering the course of care in emergent situations.

In his role at UCI, Dr. Hsu is working to integrate ultrasound learning into all four years of the medical school curriculum to train the next generation of physicians to be proficient in this potentially life-saving clinical skill. Additionally, he is conducting research on artificial intelligence to streamline ultrasound applications and enable healthcare practitioners to use point-of-care ultrasound even with minimal training. Furthermore, building on the legacy of UCI Department of Emergency Medicine leadership in point-of-care ultrasound, Dr. Hsu is researching AI speckle tracking echocardiography and establishing a program in resuscitative transesophageal echocardiography with a high-fidelity simulator to enhance resuscitative care at the UCI ED.