Medical Mission Uses Portable Ultrasound Machine in Liberia
Allison Byrne is a physical therapist and co-leader of a medical team from the Park Community Church in Chicago. She recently returned from a medical mission to assist the Light Evangelism Ministry (LEM) clinic in Fendell, Liberia. The LEM clinic provides diagnoses and treatment via IV and oral medications to any patients who come to be seen with only limited electricity from a generator.Allison’s team consisted of six people with various medical backgrounds (including a resident nurse, osteopath, and physician assistant) and two more people who primarily supported the ministry’s school. They…
Studies Show POCUS Saves Time for Pregnant Patients
In a March 2019 meta-analysis of eight studies published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, data shows that the use of pelvic point-of-care ultrasound (PPOCUS) can lead to pregnant patients spending less time in the Emergency Department. These decreased lengths of stay can help EDs and hospitals reduce crowding and enhance their quality of care1.
When examining a pregnant patient, emergency physicians must make a choice of performing either PPOCUS or a comprehensive ultrasound (CUS) through the radiology or gynecology departments. Access to CUS, however, varies widely by…
Top New Delhi Paediatrician Uses Sonosite to Promote Ultrasound
The Economic Times Healthworld recently interviewed Dr Vikas Kohli, an American Board Certified Paediatric Cardiologist with more than 20 years of experience. Based in the Delhi Child Heart Centre in New Delhi, Dr. Kohli practises non-invasive, interventional paediatric cardiology and foetal cardiology. He has worked in premier medical centres as well as villages in India’s remotest areas. He spoke about how he uses ultrasound in his practise, and why he prefers Sonosite devices.Dr. Kohli feels that ultrasonography is an essential part of any ICU.“I believe that for echocardiography…
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 anesthesiology and the many scenarios where he uses ultrasound.
When did you start using ultrasound?
I began my foray into ultrasound guided regional anesthesia 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…
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 Anesthetist with the Fiji Orthopaedic 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 anesthetist 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 most…
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…
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…
In Case of Emergency, Use POCUS
Time is of the essence in the emergency department, where a prompt diagnosis can litreally mean the difference between life and death.In this environment, access to point-of-care ultrasound is essential, providing vital information to help clinicians rapidly determine the most appropriate course of action for emergency patients. Dr. Martin Langer, clinical lead for emergency medicine at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus Unna, describes the importance of ultrasound in his department.The Evangelisches Krankenhaus Unna is a 324-bed, district hospital in Germany that includes a certified stroke unit…
User Stories: Dr. David Bahner goes on an Antarctic adventure with Sonosite iViz
Dr. David Bahner (MD, RDMS, FACEP) is an emergency medicine physician in Ohio. He took a Sonosite ultrasound system along on an expedition to Antarctica.
At the invitation of Dr. Carmine Valente, I enrolled on an expedition to the continent of Antarctica. Dr. Valente had also invited three radiologists, Dr. Brian Coley (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital), Dr. Torben Loretzen, and Dr. Christian Nolsoe. We flew into Buenos Aires Argentina and then flew to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world. They brand the city of Ushuaia as the Fin del Mundo or the “End of the World”. We…
POCUS Profile: Dr. Jennifer Hanko
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is widely used in nephrology for guiding the creation of fistulas and informing decisions on their viability and performance for dialysis. Dr. Jennifer Hanko is a consultant nephrologist at Belfast City Hospital, a 900-bed modern university teaching hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Here, she explains the impact of POCUS on her clinical practise and describes the benefits, for both staff and patients, of using POCUS.I originally learned to use ultrasound for vascular mapping and arteriovenous (AV) fistula assessment during a fellowship in…
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…
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…
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…
Point-of-Care Ultrasonography in Critical Care
ICU Management & Practice
Dr. Gulrukh Zaidi, MD and Prof. Seth Koenig, MD
Physicians have used ultrasonography for more than half a century to aid diagnoses and guide procedures, but the advent of portable ultrasound systems that physicians can use to see and assess physiological function firsthand, and in real time, has revolutionized patient care in the intensive care unit. This shift from traditional ultrasound, in which a technician and/or consulting radiologist obtains and interprets patient ultrasound images, reduces dissociation in patient care and shortens time-to-diagnosis.…
Point-of-Care Ultrasound Helps Make Regional Anaesthesia Quicker and Safer, and Improves Patient Comfort
Clinical Services Journal
Dr. Jim Corcoran, Clinical Director Perioperative Care, Salford Royal Hospital
Ultrasound guidance has proven invaluable for the regional neurosurgical center at the Salford Royal Hospital, outside Manchester, England. In addition to helping to improve patient safety, ultrasound is increasingly being used to guide regional anesthesia, offering a variety of benefits. Jim Corcoran, consultant neuroanesthetist and clinical director for perioperative care at the Salford Royal, says that ultrasound guidance also allows anesthetists to reduce the amount of anesthetic…