Cheap, Portable Ultrasound Could a Be Lifesaver .

ericjones12398 writes "Every year, around 250,000 women die due to complications from pregnancy and childbirth. New research developing cheap, portable ultrasounds could help reduce that number. From the article: 'Although diagnostic imaging is scarce in much of the developing world (mostly related to cost and portability), ultrasound imaging is a feasible technology for prototyping in low-resource settings such as developing countries. Indeed, many notable technology giants, such as GE and Siemens, are working on low-cost portable ultrasound models. GE’s Vscan is a handheld, pocket-sized visualization tool that allows for non-invasive ultrasounds. Mobisante, a startup in Seattle, takes portable ultrasound technology one step further with the MobiUS SP1 system, an ultrasound that wirelessly connects to the Internet or a smartphone for viewing results at an affordable price tag. By comparison, the large, clunky ultrasound machine most people associate with hospitals can cost anywhere from $32,000-$160,000.'"

Comments

Could be a lifesaver for men too

[s0446]

So you know when it's the time to run away.

Ba-dum-ttsshhh

women

[Anonymous Coward]

It could also increase the number of gender-specific abortions.

Selective abortions

[ShanghaiBill]

Cost is not the only issue. Ultrasound equipment is severely regulated in some countries because it is used for gender identification that results in selective abortions. When my wife was pregnant in Shanghai, we had to go to a special hospital for foreigners to get an ultrasound.

Ultrasound is not expensive

[kheldan]

I used to work for an ophthalamic ultrasound company. The hardware itself doesn't need to be expensive if you want basic functionality; it can be done in a USB-attachable box and run on any Windows machine. What makes devices like this expensive is the FDA (and it's equivalent agencies in non-U.S. countries) and all the extensive testing that needs to be done before they'll approve the device for sale. For ophthalamic ultrasound, I believe it cost something on the order of $50000US to perform all the testing that the FDA required before it could be legally sold. Other countries would require their own testing. All of this ends up driving the cost up. Of course the mere fact that it's a medical device means that the manufacturers jack the price up to make a gigantic profit off it, because doctors don't have much choice of where to buy their equipment, too.

Re:It needs to be said

[ShanghaiBill]

Instead of facilitating the addition of millions of babies into poverty, perhaps a much greater emphasis should be placed on preventing their conception.

One of the best ways to encourage women to have fewer babies is to make them feel more confident that those fewer babies are going to be healthy.

Re:Money better spent

[mr1911]

And why should I wear condom when having sex? It takes away all the fun.

You do not have to wear a condom. Your hand cannot get pregnant.

The earlier post was referring to those that have sex with women.

$7900

[denzacar]

And that's the "buy now" price for the "Interson SeeMore USB Portable Ultrasound Abdominal Probe".

On the other hand...
As someone who had 3 different ultrasound diagnoses, to the same heart condition, by 2 specialists - which in the end turned out to be of viral origin (they were literally chasing shadows); and who later had a dubious privilege of fixing and editing hundreds of ultrasound photos for an ultrasound textbook, with each step done according to the instructions of an instructor/teacher with some 40 years in the ultrasound diagnostic - price of the equipment is not the biggest obstacle in getting the ultrasound "to the masses".

It's training and experience.
And you need literally years of both to start making your ultrasound guesses educated.
Cause without both extensive training with an experienced ultrasound technician AND years of experience in doing ultrasounds of that particular section of human body - that whole "subjective interpretation of an objective method" thing amounts to just guessing.

There's an episode of House where this is nicely demonstrated by House and Wilson trying to figure out if Cuddy's daughter has swallowed a coin.
On ultrasound it might be a dime, or it may just be an air bubble.

Re:$7900

[sl149q]

I was getting an Ultrasound directed procedure done a year ago and commented to the Doctor doing it that the very expensive (I think GE) device he was using would be available as a dongle and iPhone app within a year or two.

He bristled at the suggestion saying that it wouldn't replace his decade of experience using them and interpreting the results.

I can sympathize to a certain extent. But I suspect that there are still a vast range of simple procedures that could be helped with this type of device. That over time more MD's (especially in the 3rd world) will gain experience (the hard way by simply using them.)

And since these are connected to devices with amazing amounts of CPU power machine based diagnostic tools will also be just around the corner.

There will still be the hard corner cases where only an experience and well practiced professional should be using this or something more expensive to figure something out (the "House" scenarios.) But there will also be a much better care at lower cost for a wide range of things.

Re:$7900

[camperdave]

There's an episode of House where this is nicely demonstrated by House and Wilson trying to figure out if Cuddy's daughter has swallowed a coin. On ultrasound it might be a dime, or it may just be an air bubble.

Radio Shack sells metal detectors for about $100.

Re:$7900

[TheSwift]

There's an episode of House where this is nicely demonstrated by House and Wilson trying to figure out if Cuddy's daughter has swallowed a coin. On ultrasound it might be a dime, or it may just be an air bubble.

While I've heard that some House episodes are very educational, I can tell you that that House episode was just another medical TV show keeping the public sufficiently ignorant of medicine to ensure that we'll always need health professionals. What the HELL were they doing getting an US!?! I work in an emergency department and anyone with eyes can tell the difference between a foreign body and an air bubble on an X-ray. To my knowledge US is never used to evaluate for foreign body.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_body_in_alimentary_tract

GI tract example: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/776566-overview - Is it a nail, or an air bubble???

However, just because US aren't useful for evaluating foreign bodies it doesn't mean that the technology isn't extremely promising for other factors of disease or (in the case of the article) complications with pregnancy. Can you imagine if these were widely available how easy it would be for a soon-to-be mother to learn the basics on what to look for to prevent a serious complication? Think about how many books and media a pregnant mother reads and intakes to educate themselves on pregnancy to ensure they have a healthy 9 months? If a 3-hour class was offered to mothers about how to look for an US complication and a hand-held US machine was loaned to them for their pregnancy, I'm confident that nearly all would jump at the opportunity. It wouldn't be training them to diagnose themselves or their babies with any disease it would be like, "If you see your baby's umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and you feel funny, then you should probably come see the OB/GYN immediately." That's something you could teach in a 3-hour class.