POCUS Profile: Dr. T.V.S. Gopal
Dr. T.V.S. Gopal, Head of the Department of Anaesthesia and Associate Medical Director at CARE Hospitals in Hyderabad, India, has been practicing for more than 30 years. In this recent interview, Dr. Gopal discusses how POCUS has transformed the craft of anaesthesiology and the many scenarios where he uses ultrasound.When did you start using ultrasound?I began my foray into ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia in year 2006 when I attended the Second Advanced Regional Anaesthesia & Ultrasound Guided Peripheral Nerve Block Course conducted by the Aesculap Academy in Tan Tock Seng Hospital…
Vets Examine Expectant Orangutan with Sonosite Ultrasound
Feliz, a Sumatran orangutan living in Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Louisiana, is expecting her second child. Feliz’s newest offspring is due late this summer. “All of the work that the primate care team has done has paid off, and we could not be more excited to have a baby orangutan on the way,” says Courtney Eparvier, Curator of Primates and Sea Lions at the zoo.In a video released by the Audobon Nature Institute, Eparvier describes how ultrasound is an important part of taking caring of Feliz and her baby:“We are making sure she’s getting prenatal vitamins, and also what’s really cool is the…
Sonosite Systems Help Physicians Deliver Better Patient Care at Medanta
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The Economic Times: Healthworld recently released a short documentary exploring how point-of-care ultrasound improves patient outcomes at Medanta Hospital - The Medcity in Gurugram, one of the leading multi-speciality hospitals in the Delhi-Capital region in India. In the documentary, Healthworld interviewed the point-of-care physicians at the hospital about their experience with POCUS.
The Medanta team is currently using the Sonosite M-Turbo and Sonosite Edge Color Doppler ultrasound systems. In the…
Sonosite M-Turbo Heads to Fiji on a Successful Medical Mission
Dr. David B. Goodie, a Specialist Anaesthetist with the Fiji Orthpaedic Outreach, recently returned from a weeklong charitable medical mission in Fiji. For this mission, Sonosite lent Dr. Goodie an M-Turbo, which he promptly put to good use at the Lautoka Hospital in Fiji. He writes:
"[Sonosite] devices have proved invaluable in our work, and since I am the only anaesthetist going on this occasion, an essential item for me to keep up with the workload…The members of the Orthopaedic Outreach team are once again indebted to Sonosite for the kind loan of an M-Turbo Ultrasound for its…
East London Hospital Staff Applaud the Arrival of Their New Sonosite Machines
The Queen’s Hospital Emergency Department in Romford is showing off their four new Sonosite point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) machines which will allow them to examine patients quickly and accurately. Queen's Hospital, one of the busiest emergency wards in London, has a total of six Sonosite ultrasound machines.
The portable POCUS machines are critical because they allow hospital staff to bring imaging directly to the patient’s bedside so that doctors have immediate ultrasound imaging available for decision making and diagnosis.
Emergency Department consultant Darryl Wood is…
Multimodal Analgesia Pain Management Strategies in the ICU
The use of opioids in the ICU and the post-operative period is common, with patients often receiving opioids even after simple surgeries. Though opioids are effective in providing fast pain relief, the side effects of respiratory depression, cough suppression, confusion, drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and potential addiction make the sole reliance on opioids risky.
ICU clinicians are formulating more effective strategies to manage patient pain while minimizing the risks. In an article published in ICU Management and Practise, Dr. Xavier Capdevila, Head of the Department of Anaesthesia and…
Improving care at Blue Cross Vets clinic with Ultrasound
Blue Cross Vets Clinic is the 1st Advanced Veterinary centre located at Navi Mumbai and offers different services of diagnostic, surgical & emergency care for small pet animals. They have a dedicated team of veterinarians taking care of companion animals and we tried to find out from them the various advantages of using point of care ultrasound in their daily practice.
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In a recent discussion with Dr. Esha Parulekar & Dr. Nikita Mastakar (both M.V.Sc. - Surgery & Radiology)
Since how long you…
Ultrasound for Elephant Medicine
India and Southeast Asia are home to the endangered Asian elephant, which is rapidly declining in numbers due to poaching and habitat destruction.In Myanmar, there are currently around 5,000 wild elephants, and another 3,500 that have worked in the logging industry carrying timber – an activity prohibited under new legislation. Eight of these ‘unemployed’ elephants are now cared for by Green Hill Valley, a local park on a mission to educate residents and visitors, while providing the elephants with vital veterinary care. Willem Schaftenaar, Veterinary Advisor to the Elephant Taxon Advisory…
Keeping Players on the Field with the Aid of Ultrasound
Professional sportsmen and women rely on rapid, accurate assessment and treatment of injuries to allow them to regain match fitness and return to the field at the earliest opportunity.At Harlequin FC rugby club, point-of-care ultrasound complements physical examination as an aid to diagnosis, as team doctor Courtney Kipps explained. Harlequins is an English Premiership rugby union team based in Twickenham. The club’s medical team needs to ensure that the pool of players available for selection on match days is as large as possible. This not only involves maintaining the current health and…
The Growth of Portable Ultrasound in Primary Care
In the last decade there has been a widespread adoption of portable ultrasound in point of care (POCUS) for primary care.Its potential for timely assessment and rapid diagnosis continues to attract family doctors, and more and more are getting the necessary training to offer this enhanced service to their local communities. Dr. Pere Guirado, a family doctor based in Catalonia (Spain), has always been an advocate for the use of POCUS in primary care, and describes his goal of becoming common in the country."After working for many years in medicine and exercising directive functions…
Ultrasound guided Regional Anaesthesia - a major component of ERAS: Dr. Ritesh Roy
Ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia (USGRA) in 21st century has set a new standard of perioperative care for a wide range of surgical sub-specialty procedures, including orthopaedic, general, thoracic, colourectal, breast, gynaecologic and cosmetic surgery. The use of Ultrasound guided regional anaesthesia has emerged as an important component of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols, designed to optimise patient co-morbidities before surgery, reduce stress responses after surgery, and promote early physical therapy and return to daily activities. ERAS…
20 Years of Sonosite: Bringing Ultrasound to the Forefront of Global Health
According to the World Health Organisation, much of the world’s population has no access to ultrasound imaging. From the jungles of Panama to the mountains of Nepal, the clinicians that are a part of our Global Health Programme and help bring ultrasound to the point of patient care are our greatest source of inspiration. As we celebrate 20 years of Sonosite ultrasound this year we're taking a look back at some of the most critical and complex global health cases from the past two decades. Fulfiling a Promise To Iraq with Point-of-Care UltrasoundMosul, Iraq’s second largest city…
Sonosite and Bridge To Health: POCUS Training in Uganda
To celebrate 20 years of helping clinicians bring ultrasound to the point of care, Sonosite partnered with Canadian NGO Bridge To Health and Uganda's Kigezi Healthcare Foundation (KIHEFO) to help them train Ugandan medical officers on how to diagnose paediatric pneumonia and scan breast masses to rule out cancer.As Bridge To Health's Founder and Chair Dr. William Cherniak puts it, "Bridge To Health's principle is partnership. That's what makes us so different than other global health programmes. "With that philosophy of partnership in mind, Bridge to Health worked with Sonosite's Global…
Point-of-Care Ultrasound on Mt. Everest
Dr. Luanne Freer is, to put it mildly, comfortable with being uncomfortable.A trained emergency medicine physician who grew up in the Washington DC area, Dr. Freer serves as medical director of Yellowstone National Park through Medcor Inc. When she’s not busy with her full-time job, or volunteering to save lives in Sierra Leone’s Ebola outbreak, you might find her working at the emergency clinic that she founded, Everest Base Camp Medical Clinic (Everest ER).During the annual climbing season, which usually runs from April through May, Dr. Freer collabourates with Nepali and foreign doctors;…
Teaching USGRA in Papua New Guinea
An advocate for the expansion of the use of point-of-care ultrasound, Dr. Yasmin Endlich is an anaesthesiologist who practises medicine in Australia and regularly travels to Papua New Guinea to provide medical training to local physicians. Here, she explains why nerve blocks are a crucial tool in a rural anaesthetist’s arsenal:Papua New Guinea, a country of over 8 million people, is looked after by less than 30 anaesthetists, half of whom are still in training. Not coincidentally, I have actually met every anaesthetist in Papua New Guinea.This year, the 54th Medical Symposium was held in…
Doctors Without Borders: Using Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Sudan
Dr. Achai Bulabek is a clinical officer with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). At age 28, she is currently serving a region between Sudan and South Sudan (her native country). Her hospital recently adopted a point-of-care ultrasound system (POCUS) that is now frequently used to diagnose patient trauma and guide needle-based procedures such as paracentesis and thoracentesis.In a blogpost on the MSF website, Dr. Bulabek describes several cases in which the use of POCUS helped diagnose and treat patients quickly and effectively."Since we started using the new ultrasound, something has changed…
Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Helps Make Regional Anaesthesia Quicker And Safer
Ultrasound-guidance has proven invaluable for the regional neurosurgical centre at the Salford Royal Hospital outside Manchester, England. In addition to helping to improve patient safety, ultrasound is increasingly being used to guide regional anaesthesia, offering a variety of benefits.Jim Corcoran, consultant neuroanaesthetist and clinical director for perioperative care at the Salford Royal, says that ultrasound-guidance also allows anaesthetists to reduce the amount of anaesthetic required to effectively block a nerve region (10-20 ml versus 30-40 ml using landmark/nerve stimulation…
Harvard Study Finds Significant Cost Savings with POCUS Use
According to a study conducted by Harvard researchers, emergency physicians in community-hospital settings that chose to use diagnostic point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in patient care saved patients, insurance companies, and hospitals significant sums of money, even if the results of an ultrasound did not alter a care path.Published online Dec. 28 in the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, the 3-month study involved ER physicians at 213-bed Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The team used data from Medicare fee Schedules published by the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid…
POCUS Profile: Dr. Fidel Fernandez
Ultrasound is a vital tool for vascular surgeons in the 21st century. In the following essay, Dr. Fidel Fernández Quesada, a sixth-generation vascular surgeon and associate professor at the University of Granada, Spain, describes the difference that ultrasound has made to his clinical practise, and reflects on what his forefathers would have made of such technological advancement."I have worked in the field of angiology and vascular surgery for 25 years, and currently practise both at the San Cecilio University Hospital in Granada and privately. I am also the current president of the…
Portable Ultrasound: Revolutionising Critical Care
Sonosite-portable-ultrasound.png The increased adoption of portable ultrasound has transformed critical care by helping physicians make precise bedside diagnoses in critically ill patients.Safe, accurate, non-invasive, and affordable, point-of care-ultrasound is gaining popularity over other imaging modalities (like X-ray) as it does not expose patients to ionising radiations.Since it is difficult to move unstable/subconscious patients with mechanical ventilation and other specialised intensive support to other areas of the hospitals (for ultrasound/MRI/CT imaging), it is…