This came out today from St. Louis' Washington University's website. While the screen is too small to actually get any reimbursement (ala Acuson P10 ultrasound), it would provide some helpful stuff for Emergency Rooms, EMTs, and scanning in rural locations or third-world countries. This technology goes to show how far we've come with the miniaturization of ultrasound in the past few years. Does this replace the console? Absolutely not. Someday you'll have the functionality and image quality of the full console, but the ergonomics are unfriendly and would be a nightmare for techs. We still recommend the full console units for anyone doing more than a few scans per day.
Quoted from http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/13928.html:
Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone
Imaging device fits in the palm of a hand
By Tony Fitzpatrick
Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device that fits in the palm of a hand.
William D. Richard, Ph.D., WUSTL associate professor of computer science and engineering, and David Zar, research associate in computer science and engineering, have made commercial USB ultrasound probes compatible with Microsoft Windows mobile-based smartphones, thanks to a $100,000 grant Microsoft awarded the two in 2008. In order to make commercial USB ultrasound probes work with smartphones, the researchers had to optimize every aspect of probe design and operation, from power consumption and data transfer rate to image formation algorithms. As a result, it is now possible to build smartphone-compatible USB ultrasound probes for imaging the kidney, liver, bladder and eyes, endocavity probes for prostate and uterine screenings and biopsies, and vascular probes for imaging veins and arteries for starting IVs and central lines. Both medicine and global computer use will never be the same.
Recent Comments