News and Views

ICU Management & Practice

Diku Mandavia, MD, FACEP, FRCPC, Chief Medical Officer at Fujifilm Sonosite

Hospitals all over the world are working to rapidly expand their capacity to treat critically ill patients with COVID-19. To find out how hospitals on the frontlines of the pandemic are coping and the lessons learned that could help other hospitals prepare, Fujifilm Sonosite’s Chief Medical Officer, Diku Mandavia, interviews Enrico Storti, the ICU Director/Unit Coordinator of the Emergency Department at Maggiore Hospital in Lodi, Italy.

U.S. News & World Report

Diku Mandavia, MD, FACEP, FRCPC, Chief Medical Officer at Fujifilm Sonosite

Despite expansion in health insurance coverage, emergency rooms are seeing a larger and aging population, sicker patients who arrive in immediate danger with more chronic conditions, physician shortages as care is expanded, a need for more expensive technical tools, and an unsustainable trend in costs and expenditures. Partial rescue from these challenges may be coming from the most unlikely of sources: artificial intelligence. These aren't robots, but smart apps and tools that can reduce cognitive emergency room burdens, while increasing diagnostic speed, precision and accuracy. Read Dr. Mandavia’s U.S. News & World Report article that discusses the arrival of artificial intelligence and how it is poised to have a transformative impact on emergency department teams and the broader world of medical diagnostics.

ICU Management & Practice

Robert Arntfield, MD

In this article published in ICU Management & Practice, Dr. Robert Arntfield discusses transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) training and development of a TEE clinical program, including the feasibility and impact on the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients. With a 97% success rate in answering high-stakes clinical questions in critically ill patients, Dr. Arntfield shares a case study on the clinical use of TEE and how the ACEP guidelines report that TEE “Provides the logical solution to these limitations, given its ability for continuous image acquisition both during compressions and during pulse checks, its reliably excellent image quality and its lack of interference with chest compressions or other procedures needed during cardiac arrest.” Please read Dr. Arntfield’s article to learn from about ACEP’s TEE guidelines and how to develop a program at your hospital.

Axis Imaging News

Judy Padula, MSN, RN and Matthew Ostroff, ARNP

Establishing vascular access is one of the most commonly performed medical procedures and plays a central role in patient care. However, obtaining PIV access is difficult in about 35% of patients who present to the emergency department. Ultrasound-guided vascular access can help address this issue, but a hospital must first create a program to educate clinicians in leveraging POCUS for this procedure. Nurses Judy Padula and Matthew Ostroff outline five steps in establishing an ultrasound-guided vascular access program: Identify and satisfy unmet needs, locate the safest, most cost-effective catheter site with ultrasound, use ultrasound-guided PIVs as an alternative to high-risk central lines, recognize the vital role nurse leadership can play in implementing a successful vascular access program, and leverage the nurse/physician partnership to optimize patient care.