I don't know how it works and I've never seen it, but Siemens has introduced "Auto OB" software that automatically generates fetal biometry measurements in an ultrasound study. The article from Aunt Minnie Below shows that a University of Hawaii study study shows it to be a successful piece of software. Any readers out there have experience with this? Sounds interesting, but I wonder... if you already have the image, how much time does it save and can it really save from Carpal Tunnel? Regardless, the technology sounds fascinating and I'd love to see it.
-Brian
Quoted from http://www.auntminnie.com/index.asp?Sec=sup&Sub=ult&Pag=dis&ItemId=80479&wf=2414&d=1:
Radiology, Ultrasound Community
"Automation of full ultrasound measurement has great potential for improving productivity and patient throughput, enhancing accuracy and consistency of measurements, and reducing the risk of repetitive stress injury," said Dr. Ivica Zalud of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. He presented the research findings during a scientific session at the San Diego show.
Automatic measurements can reduce keystrokes and potentially reduce repetitive stress injuries, Zalud said. In addition, they have the potential to improve everyday workflow to increase patient throughput and productivity, and also decrease interobserver variability.
The study team sought to compare the performance of Auto OB software (Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, PA) and sonographers in measuring biparietal diameter, head circumference, abdominal circumference, and femur length. They performed two sets of experiments involving five experienced sonographers with at least five years of experience; the first set was designed to assess the performance of the automated approach relative to the expert users in 250 images for each user.
The researchers set a target performance for the automated system for an average error rate of less than 3% in 80% of the cases. In the second set, the researchers sought to compare the automated system with a ground truth generated by five expert users using a set of 10 images per anatomy.
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