Reducing The Opioid Epidemic with POC Ultrasound
Every day, 91 Americans die from opioid (prescription drugs or heroin) overdoses. This is the worst drug epidemic in the history of the United States.
How can emergency physicians help patients manage pain without accidentally getting them addicted to prescription opioids?
While federal and local governments have been slow to respond to this health crisis, individual hospitals and medical centres have launched their own initiatives to begin tackling the problem of opioid abuse. Recognising that prescription opiates are often the first step toward opioid addiction, St. Joseph’s Health Care…
User Stories: St. Joseph's Reduces Time and Cost with POCUS Vascular Access
If you had to choose between inserting a PICC line (40-45 minutes) and inserting a PIV with ultrasound guidance (5-10 minutes), which would you choose to perform? What if your patient weighed less than 5 lbs? Or more than 500?
When you’re working with some of the smallest, most vulnerable patients, every single needle stick matters more than ever. Whether injecting critical medicine or drawing blood, St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Paterson, New Jersey, strives to minimize patient pain during needle insertion.
“Before we had the Sonosite ultrasound technology, we had a lot of patients…
2017 - The Year For Expansion In Ultrasound-Guided Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures
HealthCare Business News
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
With the future of the Affordable Care Act in flux, this may be a time for healthcare providers to evaluate their practises and see how they provide more for their patients and communities. By expanding service offerings, healthcare providers can attract more patients and elevate their patient's level of satisfaction. Read this article to find out how 2017 may be the year for expansion of ultrasound-guided surgical procedures using ultrasound guided breast biopsies as an example.
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The Range of POCUS: Emergency Rooms to Vascular Access to Intensive Care Training
Did you know that Sonosite’s first mission was to create an ultrasound machine that could be carried into battle? The concept was simple: Get treatment to a trauma victim by giving a frontline clinician an ultrasound machine that could be brought to the patient’s side. Now point-of-care ultrasound is used around the world for an ever growing variety of clinical applications and procedures. Here's three user stories of how Sonosite systems have helped clinicians expand the range of what's possible using portable ultrasound. Quick and Acurate Vascular AccessThe Children’s Acute…
Ultrasound and Changes in Value-Based Care - Part 1
Uncertainty – especially in economics, government, or healthcare - can be hard to handle. Combine a little bit of uncertainty in Washington D.C. and the medical community and you’ll have a window into 2017, a time when the future of the Affordable Health Care Act and the health sector is in flux. Is there a silver lining here? We believe so. 2017 presents an opportunity for healthcare providers to evaluate how technologies like ultrasound can solve their challenges. By expanding their use of ultrasound, we believe providers can attract more patients, increase their patients’ level of…
CMS Implements AUC Requirements for Advanced Imaging Services
HealthCare Business News
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
The Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have finalised the clinical areas that will be part of the new Appropriate Use Criteria requirements for the ordering of MRI, CT, PET and Nuclear Cardiology studies starting January 1, 2018. CMS has selected shoulder pain, including suspected rotator cuff injury, as one of the priority clinical areas. To learn more about these new requirements so that your practise can be prepared on January 1, 2018, please read the following article in the…
Ultrasound and Changes in Value-Based Care
Uncertainty – especially in economics, government, or healthcare - can be hard to handle. Combine a little bit of uncertainty in Washington D.C. and the medical community and you’ll have a window into 2017, a time when the future of the Affordable Health Care Act and the health sector is in flux.
Is there a silver lining here? We believe so. 2017 presents an opportunity for healthcare providers to evaluate how technologies like ultrasound can solve their challenges. By expanding their use of ultrasound, we believe providers can attract more patients, increase their patients’ level of…
Treating Acute Pain Without Opioids
For the past 20-odd years in the United States, traumatic and acute conditions have often been treated in the Emergency Room using opioid drugs. Now, with the effects of a nationwide opioid addiction crisis becoming increasingly dire, hospitals and trauma centres are looking for new ways to treat pain without prescribing addictive opioid painkillers.The goal of reducing opioid prescriptions is especially important for patients who are recovering from addiction to opioids. The Huffington Post has published a video that follows one patient’s story as he recovers from a shattered femur at the…
Portable Ultrasound Machine for International Medical Missions
Dr. Russell Engevik is an emergency room physician from California who volunteers with Lighthouse Medical Missions.He recently sent a video showing us how he utilises a borrowed Sonosite iViz while working with patients in the hospital in the small fishing village of Tanji, The Gambia.The Gambia is a resource-poor nation in West Africa with an economy that relies primarily upon tourism. Less than 6% of the land is arable, and the main crop grown in the country is peanuts.The Gambia is nearly entirely surrounded by the country of Senegal, except for the section that is bordered by the Atlantic…
Global Health: The IWISH Foundation and Sonosite Ultrasound Machines in Haiti
Audrey E. Stryker, MD, an Ob/Gyn and partner at Women's Ob-Gyn, P.C., has been traveling to underdeveloped countries with Sonosite ultrasound systems since 2004. As a part of the IWISH Foundation (International Women & Infant Sustainable Healthcare), she and her colleagues recently travelled to Haiti to help train the next generation of medical professionals. This is her story."We've been traveling to underdeveloped countries since 2004, hoping to achieve a model that offers a sustainable means for countries to provide health care for their women and children. Haiti…
Concerns about Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Australia
by Rich Fabian, Chief Operating Officer, FUJIFILM Sonosite
A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a push for increased point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) funding caught my eye. I was initially excited that the topic was receiving such prominent placement, but after delving in, I realised that that situation being described was obviously very frustrating for the people involved.
The article describes three problems that Australian providers and patients face when it comes to the use of POCUS in Australian Emergency Departments.
Medical Professionals Need POCUS Training…
The Tube Approach to Perioperative Point-of-Care Ultrasound
Anaesthetists working in perioperative medicine have increasingly taken a whole body approach to patient evaluation known as TUBE – Total Ultrasound Body Examination – thanks to the development of point-of-care ultrasound.Dr. Christophe Aveline, Consultant Anaesthetist in critical care and surgery at the Sévigné Private hospital in Rennes, is an advocate of TUBE and works closely on its adoption with the European Society of Regional Anaesthesia (ESRA) and the French Society of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation. Dr. Aveline recently sat down with Sonosite to discusses the importance of the TUBE…
Sonosite Ultrasound Gets Dirty at the Spartan Race
On the weekend of July 1 and 2, the pretty ski resort of Morzine in the region of Savoy welcomed the famous and difficult Spartan Race, an obstacle race open to all physical abilities and all levels. Competitors came from all over Europe to take part in the event.
With cold temperatures (54°F [12°C]), mud, rain, and a glacial river, the competition lived up to its reputation. In this type of race, competitors are put through the mill and regrettably injuries are common. When it comes to first aid, it pays to be prepared. Dr. Bensalah is used to extreme competitions. He is…
Fujifilm initiates a Phase I clinical trial of Anti-Cancer Drug FF-10101 in the United States in patients with Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML)
FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) announced the commencement of a Phase I clinical trial of its anti-cancer drug FF-10101 in the Unites States in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
AML is a type of haematological malignancy associated with the malignant transformation of hematopoietic stem cells, which generate blood cells, into leukaemia cells. These leukaemia cells then exhibit abnormal growth in the bone marrow and it prevents the generation of blood cells. Furthermore, the leukaemia cells with aberrant growth invade other organs outside the…
WCUME17 POCUS Chat: Interview with Dr. Peter Steinmetz - PT. 2
Dr. Peter Steinmetz, co-chair of WCUME 2017 and Director of Undergraduate Bedside Ultrasound Teaching at McGill University answers questions around the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and ensuring its proper use worldwide.
You can listen to the audio interview with Dr. Steinmetz here.
Read our first blog featuring Dr. Steinmetz here.
What needs to happen nationally and internationally to improve the consistency of user skills and spread use of POCUS across medical disciplines?
"It all starts with undergraduate medical education (UGME) as the foundation. There needs to be…
Battling Opioid Over-Prescription from Inside the ED
Did you know that nearly half of all opioid overdoses involve a prescription?Physicians are beginning to tackle the problem at ground zero: in the ED, where many patients receive their first prescription opioids.From treating acute traumatic pain to identifying new ways to alleviate patient suffering, emergency medicine physicians are identifying new ways to alleviate patient suffering without prescribing potentially addictive narcotics. Innovative methods like ultrasound-guided nerve blocks can take patient pain from 10 to 0 in a matter of minutes.Join FUJIFILM Sonosite (booth# 2307) in…
Global Health: Fujifilm Sonosite Machines Assist Puerto Rican Recovery
Dr. Alfredo Tirado is from Florida Hospital in Orlando, and has been leading an emergency response mission in Puerto Rico to help with Hurricane Maria relief.
FUJIFILM Sonosite has contributed four M-Turbos to the medical recovery efforts, and Dr. Tirado sent us an update on his work with medical patients on the island. He is being escorted by helicopter to the most at-need regions and in the image below he is using the Sonosite iViz to perform a FAST scan on a patient.
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"Thank you for helping us give…
The Changing Face of Anaesthesia
With constant pressure on healthcare providers to improve the quality and efficiency of care while reducing costs, standardisation of patient management is a logical step towards more streamlined services. Anaesthesia is one area that is beginning to embrace this approach, combining regional nerve blocks with ultrasound guidance to improve both the quality and effectiveness of patient care while minimizing hospital stays.Dr. Martin Zoremba (PhD), Chief Registrar in the anaesthesia Department at Kreisklinikum Siegen, describes the transformation of his department and the benefits that a…
7 Ways to Include POCUS in Medical School Training
When Dr. Peter Steinmetz took on the task of ensuring McGill University’s medical school graduates would be proficient in the use of point-of-care ultrasound, he faced numerous challenges, not the least of which was the fact that the undergraduate medical school curriculum was already full.Dr. Steinmetz’s first step was to convince the curriculum implementation committee that ultrasound is essential for future clinicians. “Ultrasound is performed by clinicians worldwide, and is an ideal adjunct to teaching anatomy and conducting physical examinations,” explains Dr. Steinmetz. “You need to…
Global Health: 3 Case Studies Show the Value of POCUS in Resource-Limited Healthcare
Dr. Thomas Sullivan recently returned from Quang Nam province in Vietnam, where he had volunteered at a series of clinics in late July, with the assistance of ASSORV through the Vietnam Health Clinic group of the University of Washington.Dr. Sullivan practises radiology at the Centre for Diagnostic Imaging in Seattle, WA, and borrowed a Sonosite Edge point-of-care ultrasound machine for his trip. Dr. Sullivan reported three medical cases that showed the value of POCUS in resource-limited settings.1). "A perimenopausal woman presented with a history of ovarian cancer, presumably by palpation…