World's Smallest Ultrasound Device Unveiled
It doesn't seem so long ago when Leonard McCoy, nicknamed Bones and the Starship Enterprise surgeon, would wave a hand-held device over an injured or sick crew member (or some alien species) and then obtain the diagnosis from the display screen. Not only was such a device unavailable at that time but it was also unimaginable. Now comes news about the availability of a handheld ultrasound device that seems to be moving in this same direction (see: Siemens Introduces The World's Smallest Ultrasound Unit For Emergency Diagnostics). Below is an excerpt from the story (boldface emphasis mine):
...Siemens is now offering a mini ultrasound unit that will enable patients to receive medical treatment faster than ever before. Because this unit is just as compact as a PDA cell phone, weighs only about 700 grams, and easily fits into the physician's pocket....The "Acuson P10" mini ultrasound unit offers decisive advantages for first aid in outpatient areas, rescue helicopters and intensive care units: It is mobile, easy to operate and available to physicians whenever and wherever it is needed. When set to high-definition ultrasound image acquisition, it can, for example, be used to detect accumulations of liquids in the body and heart action, display any damage to arteries and examine the pelvis....The ultrasound images are displayed on a folding monitor located on the unit. The unit can easily be controlled with your thumb much like a PDA pocket computer. Its storage batteries enable ultrasound images with a total length of approximately one hour before they require recharging. The treating physician can save the images, transfer them to the hospital information system and assign them to the patient file.
I posted a previous note about how portable ultrasound devices were being distributed to medical students for use in their clinical studies (see: Portable Ultrasound Devices Introduced into Medical School Curriculum). It seems to me that these portable ultrasound devices will become indispensable for clinicians in selected outpatient and emergency department settings. It's also obvious that a much greater swath of physicians will need to be trained in their use -- not just radiologists. Emergency medicine training programs are offering ultrasound fellowships. For example, Stanford advertises the availability of such a program in both its adult and pediatric emergency departments (see: Stanford Emergency Medicine Ultrasound Fellowship).
Of some interest is how the radiology leaders will view this leakage of ultrasound imaging outside of their specialty boundaries. My reading and discussions in this area suggest that the radiologists currently have their hands full deploying new CT and MRI imaging modalities such as the hybrid variants and don't seem to be lamenting the loss of some of the ultrasound studies.
