Free Ultrasound Machine Reviews and Tips

Free ultrasound training video: Voluson and others

Today I need your help. I'm finishing production on a training video for the Voluson i that ships free with the systems we sell to end users. I'd like your input!

The videos are free knobology/system overviews that are a visual training for our customers new to the system. It is NOT diagnostic nor is it intended to be. I've done applications training on many systems over the years, but I'm always learning from my customers and experts like you.

My question to you, loyal readers, is:

Do you have any suggestions on things you would like to see in the basic user manuals or applications training done by professionals? The audience here is a user who is new to the system, and not new to ultrasound. This could be your favorite imaging tip/hint/secret, annoying things to avoid when teaching, tips for physician training, tips for sonographer training, or important advice for learning a new system. Because it's a DVD, I can't tailor it specifically to an end user (ie: put in the context of the system it's replacing).

If I use your suggestion and it's not already included, I'll send you a free copy of the Voluson i video when it's done!

Email me your suggestions, and thank you all!

-Brian Gill

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Ultrasound equipment on Twitter

Get my latest ultrasound equipment reviews, ultrasound news, and other ultrasound related content on Twitter!

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Biggest threat to Radiology: Medical Imaging by Physicians. Aunt Minnie

A team of professional radiologists voted that the largest threat to radiology is the use of medical imaging by physicians. We have seen a tremendous demand from physicians in anesthesia, endocrinology, vascular and vein, surgery, pain management, family practice, orthopedics, rheumatology, and many other specialties, whom are adding ultrasound to their practice in order to become more efficient.

In addition, they're finding that the reimbursement adds revenue to their bottom line, and saves their patient money (as opposed to the costs of sending the patient to a hospital or imaging center). Physicians get results on-the-spot, "point of care" results and can make a quick diagnosis. For more information on ultrasound in your practice, give me a call and I can help you find the best ultrasound... such as SonoSite, GE, or Siemens portables.

-Brian

 

Quoted from http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=nws&sub=rad&pag=dis&ItemId=87734&wf=3377:

Biggest Threat to Radiology

1. Increased use of medical imaging by physicians in other specialties (turf battles)

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The Associated Press: Sonosite says patent lawsuit with GE resolved

Quoted from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnmgEBoReK54_gRDzjtmouj_FdAgD9BEBTK00:

The Associated Press: Sonosite says patent lawsuit with GE resolved

Sonosite says patent lawsuit with GE resolved

(AP) – 18 hours ago

BOTHELL, Wash. — SonoSite Inc., a maker of hand-carried ultrasound devices, said Monday a patent lawsuit initiated by General Electric Co. has been resolved with the industrial conglomerate paying $21 million for royalties in exchange for a license.

GE, based in Fairfield, Conn., sued SonoSite in 2008, seeking to invalidate its U.S. patent for the hand-held ultrasonic instruments. SonoSite said at the time there was no legal basis for the lawsuit.

Under the terms of the settlement agreement, GE will pay the Bothell, Wash.-based SonoSite $21 million and an ongoing royalty on U.S. sales and production of hand-carried ultrasound systems weighing less than 10 pounds in exchange for a perpetual nontransferable worldwide license, SonoSite said.

SonoSite will receive the royalties until the patent expires in 2016.

In addition, pending legal actions between SonoSite and GE, and cross-license to the other party's patents asserted in the lawsuits are dismissed, SonoSite said.

The settlement also includes a dispute resolution process to avoid help avoid litigation in the future.

In addition, the two companies agreed to form a foundation for funding clinical research, education and training of best practices for point-of-care ultrasound.

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SONOWORLD : Sonography More Cost Effective Than Other Modalities

Great article linked to a PDF study by the Journal of Diagnostic Sonography (JDMS) regarding the cost-effectiveness of ultrasound versus other modalities in a number of different specialties. Good to take a read for physicians considering ultrasound systems.

-Brian

Quoted from http://www.sonoworld.com/Client/ModuleContent/ModuleContent.aspx?ContentId=1972:

SONOWORLD : Sonography More Cost Effective Than Other Modalities

Sonography More Cost Effective Than Other Modalities

A literature review published in the May/June issue of Journal of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JDMS) compared ultrasound imaging with other diagnostic medical imaging modalities including contrast angiography, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT). The authors, S. Michelle Bierig, MPH, RDCS, RDMS and Anne Jones, RN, BSN, RVT, RDMS, wrote “The terms sonography and ultrasonography are often used synonymously with ultrasound, but the term ultrasound is the most widely used term in the published literature. This literature review uses the term ultrasound (US) because that term is overwhelmingly used in the references reflected in this article.” In addition to evaluating the diagnostic accuracy and cost effectiveness of sonography as compared to other medical imaging methods, the study reviewed the use of ultrasound in specific clinical applications including OB/GYN, abdominal, vascular and cardiac imaging. The use of sonography in emergency medicine, disease diagnosis and cancer care was also reviewed. The authors concluded that "The utilization of ultrasound compared to the use of alternative imaging methods leads to increased cost efficiency in the diagnosis and management of patients." "Accuracy and cost comparison of ultrasound versus alternative imaging modalities including CT, MR, PET and Angiography" is available as a free download for a limited time here: http://jdm.sagepub.com/cgi/rapidpdf/8756479309336240v1.

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SonoAccess iPhone app review

"Look at this," the anesthesiologist said to his colleague, "it'll give you a good idea of what you need to see when you're performing the needle-guided injection."

The doctor had just pulled out his iPhone. But not to make a call or show a picture of a family. He was showing a demonstration of a complicated medical procedure on an app called SonoAccess from SonoSite. It's iPhone app designed for point-of-care physicians to learn and visualize the many new and emerging applications for ultrasound.

I had the app, too, but hadn't taken a look at it. However, I had just finished training these six anesthesiologists at a local hospital on the SonoSite MicroMaxx portable ultrasound. In the training, we weren't able to do an injection on a live patient, so he pulled out this cool little iPhone app and "wowed" his audience.  Obviously, it's no replacement for practice, but it allowed the doctor to provide a good visual of this ultrasound procedure.

I delved into it more and thought I'd share my thoughts here.

Overall, the app is easy to use. On the first load it asks you for minimal contact information, then you're in.

It opens to the "coach" section, which is tailored to the preferences, or "specialty" that you set up in your profile.

The videos are separated by specialty and product. It provides some cool training videos on their products, which are typically a better, visual version of their quickstart guides (also found on the app in text form).  However, getting to the videos isn't entirely intuitive. Say you're going to take a look at a video in the "coaches" section... to get there, you'll click on the bottom-left icon that says "coach". Find the video that you want, then click on it. On the left, it shows as a picture of the video or a generic, unspecified document with text describing what you came to see. There's no "click here" or anything of the sort. So, to get to the video, just click on the image or text and you'll get what you need.

Not all videos are created by SonoSite, although a good portion of them are. And it appears not all images in the videos are SonoSite machines in use. Some of these videos are provided by a cool site called SoundBytes. This site, while it states it is subscription-based, also allows you to view free informational videos on various ultrasound procedures. They're informative and helpful videos that are wonderful to help in identifying structures, issues, and landmarks. There are videos on tendons, lower and upper extremity, DVT, pelvic, echo, and many other applications.

The next icon on the SonoAccess app takes you to "cases", which also links to many videos and articles on ultrasound scanning. The videos are helpful, however, many of the documents are quite difficult to read on the iPhone. They're PDF files that are also available on SonoSite's website, and you can look into the SonoSite Virtual classroom. It's much easier to read the documents on a larger computer screen than pinching-and-scrolling on the iPhone. It hurts your eyes. The SonoSite virtual classroom can be frustrating to navigate, but you'll eventually get what you need.

The next icon takes you to "images", which is quite self-explanatory. It's a good resource and saves the effort of running to a computer and evaluating case-studies. In fact, these ultrasound images and videos are quite convenient for those moments in-between cases when you're not quite sure when you'll be needed. You can view them anywhere so long as you have an internet connections (videos and images are downloaded from the internet, not stored on the phone itself).

The last information icon is "guides." Again, while the information is helpful, it's really tough to read on the iPhone. These are PDF files that are already available at SonoSite, so you're really better off looking at them there. It can be really frustrating pinching-and-moving the screen to try and view the document in a font that doesn't require an eagle's eyesight.

These guides include some good information, so don't ignore them. There are very good resources that SonoSite provides on its ultrasound machines (including quick guides), and ultrasound reimbursement info, which seems to be information that is hard-to-get oftentimes. Note that the reimbursement info is based on the national unadjusted physician fee schedule, so it will just give you a good idea of what to expect. There's also good information on these pages regarding other fees and procedures.

Overall, an excellent app that is stable and very informational. SonoSite really stepped ahead of the other manufacturers here by allowing its vast research and resources to be available to the general public. Nice work. Get it here.

 

Quoted from http://www.sonosite.com/products/sonoaccess/features/:

SonoAccess Ultrasound iPhone Application Features | SonoSite Inc.

Scanning Techniques The Scanning Technique Videos are designed to provide expert techniques and tips for point-of-care ultrasound applications.

Video Case Studies

The Video Case Studies provide an in-depth look into specific cases that you may encounter in your practice.

Clinical Image Gallery

The Clinical Image Gallery is designed to give you a look at expert ultrasound images for anatomy recognition and as a quick comparative reference for you to compare your results to.

Quick-Start Guides

The Quick-Start Guides are abbreviated user manuals designed to give new SonoSite users a digital roadmap of their system's controls and features to help navigate the user interface.

Reimbursement Guides

The Reimbursement Guides are designed to provide general coverage and payment information for diagnostic ultrasound and ultrasound-guided procedures so you have accurate coding and billing information.

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Pocket Heart, another cool iPhone App

The cool iPhone apps coming out for medical purposes is getting better and better. Pocket Heart

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How GE Is Disrupting Itself-- New Portable Ultrasounds Discussed

This is an interesting, long article written for the Harvard Business Review discussing the future of ultrasound and how GE is "disrupting itself". Its initial focus discusses the success of "reverse innovation" in ultrasound. Its a somewhat ironic situation in which equipment designed to meet the needs of less-developed countries with less resources, are being introduced to the larger, more well-to-do countries for entry in the market place. And they're finding success. ie: Their emerging markets find places in our emerging markets, but a tad bit differently.

In the first paragraph, it discusses two ultrasounds that refer to its recently released GE Venue 40 Ultrasound Machine series. The Venue series of ultrasounds are direct competitors to the SonoSite S-series ultrasounds, but apparently at a much more competitive price point. They're singular-focus ultrasounds designed to be used as a tool to assist another procedure, and largely designed for physician-use. For GE, these include: Vascular Access, Anesthesia, Interventional, Musculoskeletal, and Point of Care ultrasounds. Frankly, when I do apps training on these types of limited-use portables, I don't like them as much. Sure, they are easy to use, but they're hard to optimize and, oddly, frustrating to some. I prefer the Siemens P50 because they're more versatile and you can use a wireless mouse. I find that many physicians choose the SonoSite systems simply because its all that they've seen (ie: great marketing on SonoSite's behalf). Don't get me wrong, I really like SonoSite ultrasound machines, but each has its place. Venue 40 ultrasound Product Brochure and information found here.

But I digress. Here's the article. It's important to note that all of the authors are on GE's payroll, including Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE Healthcare. Its other authors are Vijay Govindarajan, and Chris Trimble.

The remainder of the article is very interesting but less ultrasound-focused. It essentially discusses how GE will use innovation for less-developed countries as its model to compete in the worldwide market (note that these countries, such as rural India and China, are some of the largest emerging market in the world). It states that if GE does not innovate for these countries, the smaller "giants" of innovation will crush GE.

Quoted from http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/10/how-ge-is-disrupting-itself/ar/1:

How GE Is Disrupting Itself - HBR.org

In May 2009, General Electric announced that over the next six years it would spend $3billion to create at least 100 health-care innovations that would substantially lower costs, increase access, and improve quality. Two products it highlighted at the time—a $1,000 handheld electrocardiogram device and a portable, PC-based ultrasound machine that sells for as little as $15,000—are revolutionary, and not just because of their small size and low price. They’re also extraordinary because they originally were developed for markets in emerging economies (the ECG device for rural India and the ultrasound machine for rural China) and are now being sold in the United States, where they’re pioneering new uses for such machines.

We call the process used to develop the two machines and take them global reverse innovation, because it’s the opposite of the glocalization approach that many industrial-goods manufacturers based in rich countries have employed for decades. With glocalization, companies develop great products at home and then distribute them worldwide, with some adaptations to local conditions. It allows multinationals to make the optimal trade-off between the global scale so crucial to minimizing costs and the local customization required to maximize market share. Glocalization worked fine in an era when rich countries accounted for the vast majority of the market and other countries didn’t offer much opportunity. But those days are over—thanks to the rapid development of populous countries like China and India and the slowing growth of wealthy nations.

We call the process used to develop the two machines and take them global reverse innovation, because it’s the opposite of the glocalization approach that many industrial-goods manufacturers based in rich countries have employed for decades. With glocalization, companies develop great products at home and then distribute them worldwide, with some adaptations to local conditions. It allows multinationals to make the optimal trade-off between the global scale so crucial to minimizing costs and the local customization required to maximize market share. Glocalization worked fine in an era when rich countries accounted for the vast majority of the market and other countries didn’t offer much opportunity. But those days are over—thanks to the rapid development of populous countries like China and India and the slowing growth of wealthy nations.

GE badly needs innovations like the low-cost ECG and ultrasound machines, not only to expand beyond high-end segments in places like China and India but also to preempt local companies in those countries—the emerging giants—from creating similar products and then using them to disrupt GE in rich countries. To put it bluntly: If GE’s businesses are to survive and prosper in the next decade, they must become as adept at reverse innovation as they are at glocalization. Success in developing countries is a prerequisite for continued vitality in developed ones.

The problem is that there are deep conflicts between glocalization and reverse innovation. And the company can’t simply replace the first with the second, because glocalization will continue to dominate strategy for the foreseeable future. The two models need to do more than coexist; they need to cooperate. This is a heck of a lot easier said than done since the centralized, product-focused structures and practices that have made multinationals so successful at glocalization actually get in the way of reverse innovation, which requires a decentralized, local-market focus.

Almost all the people and resources dedicated to reverse innovation efforts must be based and managed in the local market. These local growth teams need to have P&L responsibility; the power to decide which products to develop for their markets and how to make, sell, and service them; and the right to draw from the company’s global resources. Once products have proven themselves in emerging markets, they must be taken global, which may involve pioneering radically new applications, establishing lower price points, and even using the innovations to cannibalize higher-margin products in rich countries. All of those approaches are antithetical to the glocalization model. This article aims to share what GE has learned in trying to overcome that conflict.

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SonoSite MicroMaxx Price and Titan Price drops

We just dropped the price on refurbished units of the SonoSite MicroMaxx and the SonoSite Titan portable ultrasound machines. These have been popular with needle-guide applications (PICC line, anesthesia, pain management, etc) as well as Musculoskeletal applications lately. Of course, we also sell them for the traditional uses such as vascular, breast, emergency department, and other ultrasounds typically performed by the Physician. You can also just call for pricing on the MicroMaxx and Titan.

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Acuson Antares Transducers

We just added the full range of Acuson Antares (Siemens Antares) transducers to our available inventory. We sell these new with warranty and also have used probes available. We have a special price on the C5F1 4D Antares transducer, as well. It's a great resource to add or replace your transducers. All links may not be up yet, but they're all available if they're listed on the Antares page. Click on the contact link to get pricing.

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Acuson X150 Color Doppler Ultrasound

Following is our video introduction to the Acuson X150 ultrasound. It shows the user interface and I take a look at its imaging capabilities. It's in a non-clinical environment, but gives you a good idea of its capabilities and image quality. It follows the Acuson tradition well with a no-nonsense high quality image. More information on the Acuson X150 is available by following this link: Acuson X150 Ultrasound

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Acuson Antares ultrasound review with 3D and 4D imaging

We're still getting a lot of buzz around the Acuson Antares (Siemens Antares). I'd forgotten about it so I'm posting it here. Acuson X150 video coming shortly. Email Brian Gill if you're interested in knowing more about this system or if you're interested in adding it to your practice. You can get more information on the Acuson Antares at the GPS Medical website. Additionally, GPS Medical is selling replacement transducers for the Acuson and Siemens Antares ultrasounds, new and refurbished, with warranties.

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