RSS
Home
Smartphone ultrasounds could revolutionize medical imaging
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Researchers at Washington University in Saint Louis (WUSTL) have invented technology that solves one of the largest problems in the medical field: how to make cumbersome, expensive imaging technology available to all people. Using a $100,000 grant from Microsoft, scientists at WUSTL managed to make an ultrasound system that requires nothing more than a smartphone. They’ve created an ultrasound imaging system that can literally fit into a doctor’s pocket.
This is big news for rural communities and developing countries. CT and MIR machines are so difficult to move and require so much power that “70 percent of the world's population has no access to medical imaging. It's hard to take an MRI or CT scanner to a rural community without power." [WUSTL] But using a cell phone circumvents this problem, taking far less power to operate. All that is need is access to a cell phone tower, so only the more obscure regions of the world would still pose a problem to the technology.
Hand-held, USB-driven ultrasound wands were already in existence, so it was merely a matter of designing a new technology and computer programs to make the wand compatible with the phone. Ultrasounds involve rapid capture of large amounts of data—more than what your average phone could handle. Creating this technology was no easy feat, but in the end, they succeeded. With the technology, it is now “possible to build smartphone-compatible USB ultrasound probes for imaging the kidney, liver, bladder and eyes, endocavity probes for prostate and uterine screenings and biopsies, and vascular probes for imaging veins and arteries for starting IVs and central lines.” [WUSTL]
This technology will totally change the face of rural healthcare—especially in developing countries. By having these portable medical devices, an emergency worker could image a patient and send the data back to a hospital, meaning the doctors are prepared to treat a problem before a patient even arrives. And in developing countries, that data can be gathered by those who aren’t trained professionals and sent back to a central hub for doctors to study.
Dr. William D. Richard, states, "Imagine having these smartphones in ambulances and emergency rooms. On a larger scale, this kind of cell phone is a complete computer that runs Windows. It could become the essential computer of the Developing World, where trained medical personnel are scarce, but most of the population, as much as 90 percent, have access to a cell phone tower." [WUSTL]
Another application that may prove beneficial is the military. If a field medic has access to a portable probe, they would be able to quickly assess the site of “shrapnel wounds in order to make the decision of transporting the soldier or treating him elsewhere on the field.” [WUSTL]
More About:
technology
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
Cheeseburgers, fries, and other modern-day fatty foods often receive the blunt of the blame for atherosclerosis, a heart disease in which cholesterol …
When the LCROSS probe bashed into the moon October 9th, it sent an unassuming plume of lunar surface puffing off into space. In that puff, LCROSS …
- 10. China's urbanization escalating strain on global grain supply
- 9. Life may have originated billions of years earlier
- 8. Against the odds ancient octopus fossils discovered
- 7.Scientist suggests that plant is self-aware
- 6. Girl with two hearts makes complete recovery
- 5. Evidence shows some large dinosaurs survived mass extinction
- 4. Potential cure found for honey bee colony collapse
- 3. New discovery may end transplant rejection
- 2.Successful treatment of peanut allergy
- 1. First clinical use of embryonic stem cells approved
