A hospital devastated by the war on terror is now equipped with greater imaging capabilities for patients thanks to a point-of-care donation from FUJIFILM SonoSite Inc.

The ultrasound manufacturer has offered up one of its SonoSite M-Turbo systems to CADUS, an independent aid organization supporting the relief effort in Iraq, to assist Mosul’s Al-Khansaa Women’s and Children’s Hospital in providing medical assistance to patients, according to a FUJIFILM SonoSite blog.

“From the beginning, FUJIFILM SonoSite has been dedicated to empowering clinicians to continue innovating the practice of medicine for the sake of providing better patient care,” Diku Mandavia, chief medical officer and senior vice president of FUJIFILM SonoSite, told HCB News. “FUJIFILM SonoSite's first mission was to create an ultrasound machine that could be carried into battle and used to make time-critical medical decisions under the most grueling conditions imaginable.”

The hospital initially offered a high standard of care but was worn down by ISIS during its military offensive to take the city, which destroyed 85 percent of the hospital building and its equipment.

The SonoSite M-Turbo System is designed for abdominal, nerve, vascular, cardiac, venous access, pelvic and superficial imaging.
Equipped with sharp contrast resolution and clear tissue delineation, the solution enables users to visualize detail and improves their ability to differentiate structures, vessels and pathology.

Its small size, robustness and ease of use also make it a strong resource for humanitarian relief efforts.

The donation stems from the creation of FUJIFILM SonoSite through a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant awarded by the Department of Defense for the creation of a portable ultrasound weighing less than ten pounds that could withstand battlefield conditions.

The start of the organization has since led to the development of SoundCaring, a discount program for qualified North American charitable organizations to buy and donate M-Turbo ultrasound systems to low resource countries; and the Global Health Loaner program which lends ultrasound machines to U.S.-based clinicians or ultrasound-trained health professionals planning non-profit medical missions in the developing world.

“FUJIFILM SonoSite designed the SonoSite SoundCaring and Global Health Loaner programs for those working on humanitarian efforts in remote, low-income communities with little or no access to ultrasound technology,” Mandavia said.

Hospital physicians utilizing the device will be provided with training courses in areas such as FAST, lung ultrasound, and regional nerve blocks, to ensure confidence in its use.

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