About

Dr. Sara Damewood is a Professor (CHS) in the Division of Emergency Ultrasound at the University of Wisconsin Department of Emergency Medicine. She holds a BS from Wright State University and an MD from The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her postgraduate training includes a residency at Albany Medical College, where she served as Chief Resident, and a fellowship in Emergency Ultrasound at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Dr. Damewood is a dedicated educator and leader, serving as Vice Chair of Education and Division Chief of Emergency Ultrasound. She oversees all aspects of the department's education and ultrasound portfolios, leading significant advances in clinical ultrasound image archiving and review to improve emergency department patient care. She developed a clinical ultrasound fellowship in 2014, which has produced graduates now serving as faculty and ultrasound leaders in community emergency departments. She also established the Advanced Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, serving as its director until 2024. Her research projects include exploring cardiopulmonary ultrasound findings in septic shock, ultrasound assessment of aspiration pneumonia, 3D printing models, and prehospital care. Dr. Damewood is recognized nationally as a leader in the clinical ultrasound community, having served as co-chair of the ACEP Ultrasound section simulation subcommittee, chair of the Society of Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships program development committee, and inaugural chair of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship Accreditation Council. Her interests include simulation, measuring ultrasound competency, and fellowship education. She has received numerous awards, including the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (2024), the Clinical Practice Excellence Award at UW Health (2023), and the Innovation in Clinical Ultrasound Education Award from the American College of Emergency Physicians (2019).

Research topics

• Medicine
• Intensive care medicine
• Internal medicine
• Radiology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cardiology
• Computer Science
• Pathology
• Medical emergency
• Political Science
• Mathematics
• Family medicine
• Nuclear medicine
• Emergency medicine
• Psychology
• Medical physics

Selected publications

• Evaluation of Point-of-Care Ultrasound Use in Emergency Medicine Residents: An Observational Study

  Western Journal of Emergency Medicine · 2025-05-19

  articleOpen access

  INTRODUCTION: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is integral to emergency medicine (EM) training. It is unclear how EM residents use POCUS and how these skills are maintained as they progress in residency training. The purpose of this study was to evaluate resident use of POCUS at various timepoints in EM training. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of EM residents at a single, three-year training program between July 1, 2014-June 30, 2022. Residents were included if they had completed three consecutive years of training and an ultrasound rotation in their postgraduate year (PGY)-1. The following time points were assessed: PGY-1 rotation and 3-, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-months post-rotation. Number of scans, accuracy of interpretation, acceptability for credit, and percentage of technically limited studies (TLS) were collected at each point. We analyzed performance characteristics using mixed-effects binomial logistic regression with time as a fixed effect and resident as a random effect. Models were fit separately for each performance characteristic and likelihood ratio tests were performed to determine whether performance varied over time. RESULTS: A total of 65 residents were included with a total of 13,229 exams performed during the study period. Cardiac and focused assessment with sonography in trauma examinations were performed most commonly. Overall accuracy of all exams during the examination period was 97.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 96.2-98.0%), TLS was 14.5% (95% CI 9.7-20.6%), and acceptability was 82.9% (95% CI 76.3-88.2%). Trend over time (3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months) found no differences in accuracy (P = 0.84), TLS (P = 0.20), or acceptability (P = 0.28). Further analyses by individual exam types also showed no significant differences in accuracy, acceptability, nor TLS. CONCLUSION: Accuracy, acceptability, and percentage of technically limited scans did not significantly vary over time, suggesting that POCUS skills are maintained from PGY-1 rotation to each time point evaluated in this study.

Frequent coauthors

• Donald Jeanmonod

  St. Luke's University Health Network

  36 shared

• B. Cadigan

  Albany Medical Center Hospital

  25 shared

• Nikolai Schnittke

  13 shared

• Rebecca Jeanmonod

  St. Luke's University Health Network

  13 shared

• Hani I. Kuttab

  10 shared

Education

• M.D., Emergency Medicine

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2000

• B.S., Biology

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1996

Awards & honors

• Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (2024)
• Clinical Practice Excellence Award, UW Health (2023)
• Impact Award, Group on Women in Medicine and Science, UW Sch…
• Shazam Award, Society of Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships (20…
• Innovation in Clinical Ultrasound Education Award, Emergency…