Abstract: Disclosed is an ultrasound system having a monitoring pad for application to a patient, an ultrasound probe that connects to the monitoring pad and has a plurality of ultrasound transducers, and an ultrasound beamforming device configured to control the ultrasound transducers to focus an ultrasound beam into the patient and to read resulting reflections of the ultrasound beam. The monitoring pad has an ultrasound gel pad and a support structure that holds the ultrasound gel pad. In accordance with an embodiment of the disclosure, the support structure is geometrically configured to receive the ultrasound probe and to hold it in a fixed arrangement against the ultrasound gel pad, such that the ultrasound gel pad is sandwiched between the patient and the ultrasound transducers. In some implementations, the monitoring pad has electrocardiogram electrodes and/or other sensor(s) unrelated to ultrasound, and the ultrasound beamforming device receives readings from the same.