Blog

Emergency Medicine in a War Zone

Sonosite is proud to acknowledge Dr. Todd Baker as a hero. He recently spent 15 months as chief of Emergency Medicine at the Army support hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. His small team worked 20-hour shifts, came under repeated rocket fire, and wore body armor while caring for patients. In the recent “Emergency Medicine in a War Zone” article published on www.acep.org, Dr. Baker recounts how a Sonosite ultrasound system was instrumental in helping save lives in a combat setting. Sonosite is honored to have played a part in his team’s heroic, life-saving service.

Game-Changer

Imaging Economics | September 2011 "Use of ultrasound at the point of care is growing in sports medicine. In office practice and on the playing field, this versatile technology is now widely used by team physicians in professional sports to provide dynamic real-time evaluation and safe, accurate treatment of players' injuries. Most European soccer clubs, as well as the National Basketball Association, are taking advantage of ultrasound's well-established benefits for improving patient safety and outcomes, at a fraction of the cost of MRI or CT scans." Read the full article by…

Preventing Medical Catastrophes

Two exemplary Primary Care physicians are “uncovering serious abnormalities” that could not have been found through physical examination. In fact, these physicians found more than 50 cases of thyroid and other cancers. Read their article on the Imaging Economics website about how noninvasive screening at the point of care can help prevent medical catastrophes.

India and Morocco

Phil Arnold, MD On the use of Sonosite ultrasound for paediatric cardiac anaesthesia in developing nations Congenital heart disease is one of the most common forms of birth defect, affecting about one in 145 births in the UK or 4,600 babies every year1. About a third of these patients will require surgery, often early in life. Once performed, surgery can be effectively curative in many cases, the majority of these children will not require further surgery and be off all medications within a short period. Some children with more complex conditions will require medical…

Rwanda

Steven C. Hall, MD, Anesthesiologist Discusses use to Sonosite ultrasound during a medical mission to Gitwe, Rwanda Medical Missions for Children is one of the largest nonprofit groups in the United States that provides surgical care for children and adults in some of the poorest and most underserved areas of the world. This is the fourth time a team went to Gitwe, Rwanda, to provide two weeks of free care. The team consisted of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses from around the U.S. Several of us had been there before. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and one…

Haiti

Sachita Shah, MD, Emergency Medicine in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake Day 1 - Entering Haiti, January 27, 2010 When we flew in on Jan 16th to Port-au-Prince, the destruction was evident in many areas. The hardest hit included Carre Four with crumpled houses, which we could see from the plane. The airport was a military zone, and the UN compound had been crushed, with many armed UN and US military throughout the nearby area and various aid groups scrambling about. We were driven by Zanmi Lasante vehicles to several points, only to find the meeting places structurally questionable, finally…

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Judith Anderson On the use of Sonosite ultrasound in Goma HEAL Africa acquired a Sonosite ultrasound system through the SoundCaring program to serve a hospital treating patients in a war zone. It is housed in the maternity ward but is often used in the Emergency Room. The very large ultrasound machine at the hospital has been most often out of service due to technical issues since it arrived. HEAL Africa now has a functioning ultrasound machine 24/7! It has been a huge help in diagnosing life-threatening situations. Dr. Christophe Kimona, General Surgeon and Chief of Staff…

The Intelligent Hospital with Marco Daoura, Fujifilm Sonosite, at HIMSS 2014

The intelligent hospital was setup to help the industry keep track of rapidly advancing medical technology from RFID tracking to Sonosite's ultrasound system's being featured in the Intelligent Hospital ICU experience. Visit intelligenthospital.org for more information.

Sonosite Goes to Brazil!

Sonosite’s International Symposium on Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Brazil was a huge success -- two of the biggest events in Sonosite history! There were over 450 total registrants for both Sāo Paulo and Rio De Janeiro. 150 for São Paulo and 300 attendees for Rio De Janeiro’s symposium. The 2nd half of the symposium consisted of three educational workshops that the participants could choose from. Topics for each workshop varied due to the attendee list and venue size for each workshop. Each workshop consisted of a local physician presentation followed by two hours…

Sonosite interviews Dr. David Williams for the Code Black Movie release

Meet Dr. David Williams from Code Black Movie Dr. David Williams is an assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine at LA County USC Medical Center. He works within the Division of International and Wilderness Emergency Medicine and has been practicing at LA County USC since 2003. "LA County on its own represents one of our nation's big county hospitals... taking care of the poorest of the poor patients in our country, and the majority of them being the working poor." Dr. David Williams smiles as he compares LA County Hospital to a dirty piece of gum stuck to his shoe: "tough…

What if you could detect and prevent diseases before they showed symptoms?

Bridging the Gap to Create Continuity of Care Life Line Screening is known throughout the nation as the leading provider of community-based preventive health screening services. The company brings affordable screenings to the public through partnerships with leading hospitals, civic organizations, and other groups committed to quality health care – like Sonosite. Sharing a vision to make disease identification and prevention accessible to all, Sonosite and Life Line Screening collaborate to promote widespread participation in early screenings. Hospitals and vascular centers partner with…

What if you could eliminate iatrogenic pneumothorax?

Michael Shabot, MD, of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, discusses iatrogenic pneumothorax and central line placement safety. Memorial Hermann Healthcare System attained zero iatrogenic pneumothorax complications in multiple hospitals for a full year.The Healthcare System accomplished this incredible feat in several of its prestigious hospitals, including Memorial Hermann Southeast, Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, Children’s Memorial Hermann, Memorial Hermann Katy, Memorial Hermann Northeast, Memorial Hermann Northwest, as well as eight community hospital emergency departments across its…

White Memorial Medical Center Utilizes Sonosite's Central Line Management Program

Striving for Excellence at White Memorial Medical Center White Memorial Medical Center, a member of the Adventist Health System and a 353-bed hospital in downtown Los Angeles, was concerned about its rates of iatrogenic pneumothoraces (IP) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and set out to improve the situation. According to Mara Bryant, White Memorial's Senior Vice President for Organizational Excellence. With this goal in mind, White Memorial Medical Center implemented the Sonosite Central Line Management Training Program, which ran from January 2010 through August…

What if you could place central lines in the first try?

In his own words: Hear one physician share his AxoTrack experience. I feel confidence in knowing where the tip of that needle is and I think that is a big deal. AxoTrack clearly contributes to the accuracy of the procedure; I think that’s what it brings to the game. --Mark P. Mercier, MD, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine, Beaufort Memorial Hospital The results are in—AxoTrack helps set the bar for first-pass success rates AxoTrack® Needle Guidance Technology, the "point-and-shoot" simple option for central venous catheterization (CVC), has achieved a 97% first-pass success rate…

What if we could decrease the need for CVC placements in the ER?

"This data is pivotal for emergency medicine and the overall impact it can have on patient safety and cost reductions in the hospital." — Bon Ku, MD, MPP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Study finds that ultrasound-guided peripheral IV’s are a viable alternative to high-risk CVCs in 85% of Patients More than five million central venous catheter (CVC) lines are placed in U.S. hospitals each year, making it one of the most common invasive emergency room procedures.1 CVC placement involves the insertion of a large catheter into a patient’s major vessel. It is often used for those who have poor…

Ultrasound First -- Renal Colic Detection

Renal colic affects nearly 1.2 million people each year and accounts for approximately 1 percent of hospital admissions.1 Diagnosing kidney stones in patients who present with renal colic is often performed with computed tomography (CT) and, less commonly, with intravenous urography (IVU).2 While CT and IVU are accurate diagnostic tests and define clearly the size, shape, and position of uric acid stones, they also present a number of factors that would discourage use,3 including the potential risks of exposing patients to repeated doses of ionizing radiation. In fact, the Joint…

Ultrasound First -- Musculoskeletal Imaging (MSK)

Clinical evidence and research supports using ultrasound as the first diagnostic test for numerous musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. Diagnostic ultrasound offers a number of important advantages compared to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in terms of safety and effectiveness. Diagnostic ultrasound is noninvasive and offers real-time imaging, allowing for examinations of structures at rest and in motion. This ability to capture the movement of musculoskeletal components differentiates it from other imaging modalities and can permit more accurate diagnoses.…

Banner Health Case Study

Over the span of 13 years, BannerHealth has incrementally adopted PoCUS (Point-of-care ultrasonography) across the health system through organic growth, unintended disruption and intended disruption. In all cases, Banner Health's operating processes led to PoCUS becoming a facilitating innovation, which improved diagnosis, treatment decision-making, clinical outcomes and reduced costs. Download: Banner Case Study_Sonosite_4.18.14 Banner Health, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, operates 24 hospitals and many ambulatory and other health delivery…

Dr. John Christian Fox and Joel Shlang discuss Medical Education, Sonosite's GLIMPSE Show

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