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…
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…
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…
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.
Smarter Use of Imaging Technology: Reduce Errors Costs
The Good News About Healthcare Reform: Smarter Use of Imaging Technology Helps Reduce Hospital Errors, Healthcare Costs
Paul Sierzenski, MD
Medical errors continue to be a major problem in the US healthcare system, with hospital acquired infections (HAC) becoming an area of greater focus and where significant financial penalties are being incurred. Medicare has added one especially dangerous--or even potentially fatal--adverse event, iatrogenic pneumothorax during central line placement, to its HAC list. Along with putting patients in peril, the mistake can also increase hospital costs by up…
Smarter Use of Imaging Technology: Reduce Errors Costs
The Good News About Healthcare Reform: Smarter Use of Imaging Technology Helps Reduce Hospital Errors, Healthcare Costs
Paul Sierzenski, MD
Medical errors continue to be a major problem in the US healthcare system, with hospital acquired infections (HAC) becoming an area of greater focus and where significant financial penalties are being incurred. Medicare has added one especially dangerous--or even potentially fatal--adverse event, iatrogenic pneumothorax during central line placement, to its HAC list. Along with putting patients in peril, the mistake can also increase hospital costs by up…
$330 Million Risk: What Boards Should Know
Rodney Hochman, MD, Group President and CEO of Providence Health & Services
In his article that advises American Hospital Association member trustees, Rodney Hockman, MD warns that hundreds of hospitals are likely to be penalized by Medicare for patient injuries under the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program starting in October 2014. He points out that each penalized hospital stands to lose nearly $434,000 in Medicare reimbursements on average, with large hospital systems and those with a high volume of Medicare payments potentially facing much greater losses should they…
$330 Million Risk: What Boards Should Know
Rodney Hochman, MD, Group President and CEO of Providence Health & Services
In his article that advises American Hospital Association member trustees, Rodney Hockman, MD warns that hundreds of hospitals are likely to be penalized by Medicare for patient injuries under the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program starting in October 2014. He points out that each penalized hospital stands to lose nearly $434,000 in Medicare reimbursements on average, with large hospital systems and those with a high volume of Medicare payments potentially facing much greater losses should they…
How Technology is Shaping Medicine and Ultrasound
Dr J. Christian Fox, a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at UC Irvine, is a self-professed “Sono-Evangelist.”
During a recent lecture at Newport Beach Central Library, Dr. Fox and three physicians from UC Irvine Health shared how technology is shaping their field of practice. With ultrasound machines getting smaller and smaller, Fox said, he envisions hand-held ultrasound machines in the pocket of every doctor’s white coat.
"Ultrasound can be a bit of an art to perform,” Fox said. “It takes quite a bit of training and time to make these machines sing…
HIMSS15 Marks Major Changes in Health IT
The trend towards interoperability is palpable and what better way to underscore this positive movement than HIMSS 2015 conference which broke all time attendance records. FUJIFILM Sonosite is at the forefront of clinical workflow optimization and health IT interoperability. The need to connect modalities, especially Ultrasound, to EMRs and other Health IT systems is significant and FFSS is taking concrete steps to achieve this important goal. As evidenced by this direct quote, alignment amongst key industry stakeholders is the first step towards effective interoperability.
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Global Health: Teaching Ultrasound in Malawi - Dr Bergman
Global Health is more than providing medical care in resource limited countries. To create sustainable global health, four physicians from Contra Costa Family Medicine residency traveled to Malawi to do an ultrasound training for Malawian clinicians. They were kind enough to send us lots of photos and the following summary:
For the past five years, Contra Costa has taught a comprehensive point-of-care ultrasound course for its Family Medicine residents. While these skills have become quite useful in the hospital and the clinic in the US, their ultrasound skills have become…
Global Health: Teaching Ultrasound in El Salvador
It is sometimes easy to forget how privileged we are to have access to modern conveniences, healthcare technologies and services. Fortunately, at Sonosite, we enjoy supporting many adventurous care providers who share their skills in resource limited countries. One such Doctor is Dr Jennifer Chao. Upon her return from El Salvador we received this informative email:
On May 19 and 20th, twenty-one physicians in El Salvador participated in a 2 day pediatric bedside ultrasound course at Benjamin Bloom Children's Hospital in San Salvador, El Salvador. This is the fourth time that such a course…
Global Health: Kiwi Doctors Use Ultrasound to Help Save Boy in Rural Indonesia
Returning to try and save Thomas: A 5 year old boy in the final stages of heart failure in Indonesia. To watch the news video report click here: http://tvnz.co.nz/seven-sharp/he-could-walk-indonesian-child-s-miracle-turnaround-after-kiwi-doctors-intervene-video-6309161 Dr Tom Mulholland is the Senior Medical Officer, Department of Emergency Medicine, Auckland City Hospital. He is also an Honorary Lecturer in Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland Taken from the mission page of www.drtomonamission.com Dr Caroline Meadows and I are heading…
Global Health: Dr. Wes Wallace - La Moskitia, Honduras
La Mosquitia has the largest wilderness area in Central America, consisting of mangrove swamps, lagoons, rivers, savannas and tropical rain forests. Manatees, tapirs and jaguars all still thrive here – they have learnt to be circumspect around man, and they may not be easy to spot. Crocodiles can be seen in the waters.
Access to healthcare is made difficult due to geographic make-up of the region. There are few healthcare structures in existence, and those that do exist are often deprived of a doctor, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. By virtue of geography and socio-…
Deep Needle Procedures: Abstract, Interview and Article
Promoting patient safety and increasing health care quality have dominated the health care landscape during the last 15 years. Health care regulators and payers are now tying patient safety outcomes and best practices to hospital reimbursement. Many health care leaders are searching for new technologies that not only make health care for patients safer but also reduce overall health care costs. New advances in ultrasonography have made this technology available to health care providers at the patient's bedside. Point-of-care ultrasound assistance now aids providers with real-time diagnosis…
Breaking the Barriers
Part 6 of our compelling 6 part series.
Listless and sleepy, the three week old baby is making mother anxious. At the follow up clinic it’s low weight is also concerning physicians.
Three weeks old and weighing only 2.8 kgs the baby is too light. There are other concerns: the child is listless and feeding erratically. In remote Norteno, Panama ‘follow-up’ clinics are crucial in improving healthcare. Hand-carried ultrasound brings immediate diagnosis to this anxious mother’s child.
Sign up here to watch all six episodes and download Dr. Ben LaBrot's 10 tips for using portable ultrasound in…
Global Health Experience, Macedonia
At Sonosite we are very fortunate to know a large group of doctors and care workers who are invested in global public health. Those rare people that go to remote locations to treat patients and train the local healthcare workers rely on Sonosite to provide them with the ultrasound equipment necessary. Through charities, they are often able to provide ultrasound equipment to be left at the location and used by the newly trained staff. One of these individuals is Dr Randall Malchow who wrote this summary of his experience in Macedonia: Dr Randall Malchow’s Experience in…
Global Health Experience - Honduras
Here at Sonosite we have a pool of equipment that we loan for global health missions in under-served areas. We were fortunate to be able to support Dr Braehler's recent mission to Honduras. This is what he had to say:"We came back from our Operation Rainbow trip to Comayagua/ Honduras last Sunday and it was an amazing experience.We were able to do surgery for 43 patients in four days and almost all of them got at least one nerve block, quite a few got two for lower extremity surgeries. We did a total of 50+ blocks, all of them ultrasound guided and they all worked very well. The surgeons were…
Reaching the Remote: Maria's Baby
Part 5 of our compelling 6 part series. Maria is pregnant, a few days overdue with her baby in a dangerous, transverse position. Out here in this remote location, when to transport is the most difficult question. Dr. Jordan sees the complications ahead, live on screen with hand-carried ultrasound. Women in these communities almost always have their babies at home and infant mortality is high. The mother and grandmother's anxiety is compounded by the practical and financial difficulties in getting to a hospital far away. Complications lie ahead for pregnant mother Maria. Dr. Jordan, a…
The ever-changing Medicare Payment Policy
2015-01-27T08:00:00
Q&A with Jill Rathbun
Gus Iversen
The health care industry is increasingly facing payment pressures, especially from the shift to value-based medicine - high-quality care that is also cost effective.
In this Q&A article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, in Arlington, VA, discusses the ever changing and complex topic of Medicare Payment Policy and what all health care executives need to be aware of in the coming months. An expert in health care policy and reimbursement, Ms. Rathbun explains and walks hospital executives…