Portable Ultrasound as the Stethoscope of the Future: Is It the Snapchat of Formal Echocardiography?

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814538#1

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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/765017

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Finally, I wanted to describe is something that I’ve become reliant upon, and that’s this high-resolution ultrasound device known as the Vscan. I use this in every patient to listen to their heart. In fact, I haven’t used a stethoscope for over 2 years to listen to a patient’s heart. What’s really striking about this is that it’s a real stethoscope. “Scope” means look into. “Steth” is the chest. And so now I carry this in my pocket, and it’s just great. I still need a stethoscope for the lungs, but for the heart this is terrific. You just pop it open, put a little gel on the tip of the probe, and get a quick, complete readout with the patient looking on as well. I’m sharing their image on the Vscan while I’m acquiring it and it only takes about a minute. We validated its usefulness in an Annals of Internal Medicine paper, in July 2011,^[1] describing how it compares favorably to the in-hospital ultrasound echo lab-type image. This could be another very useful device in emergency departments, where the wireless loops could be sent to a cardiologist. Another application it could be used for is detecting an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Paramedics who are out in the field, or at a trauma case, could use this to wirelessly send these video loops to get input from a radiologist or expertise from any physician for interpretation. (Topol)

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As a clinician, everything about this innovation excites me. Yes, the technology is nifty, the cost-effectiveness useful, but the best part is this: if we try to make portable ultrasound do too much, it fails.(John Mandrola)

John M. Mandrola, MD

Clinical Electrophysiologist, Baptist Medical Associates, Louisville, Kentucky

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if we try to make portable ultrasound do too much, it fails.

Concordância total do blog!

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