by
Lisa Chamoff, Contributing Reporter | April 02, 2018
From the April 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
"This screening is the best way to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages," Headrick says. "The mobile coach allows us to take this important screening tool out into our communities and reach people who may not have access or the opportunity to get this scan otherwise. It's an important step toward changing the lung cancer statistics in the Chattanooga region."
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In partnership with Mending Kids, Cincinnati Children's
Hospital recently completed its second annual mission
to Tanzania to provide surgical care for sick children using
Canon Medical Systems USA Inc.'s Viamo portable
ultrasound system.
The RV is fully self-contained, which means it is not dependent on a power supply to operate. It can easily be parked at a grocery store or outside a factory, and a utility company is responsible for 4-gigabyte Internet service, so technologists can submit images, as soon as they’re collected, to radiologists at the hospital.
As the mobile service gets off the ground, hospital staff is spending a great deal of time educating providers and legislators to help spread the word.
“It took mammography about 20 years to get community buy-in,” Headrick says. “Our goal is to look to breast as the model to spend a lot of time educating the community and providers.”
Ultrasound in your pocket
Proponents of handheld ultrasound may also be a little bit evangelical when it comes to spreading the word about the devices, which they say may soon be as ubiquitous as the stethoscope.
Peter Bonadonna, a paramedic and paramedic program director for Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, uses GE Healthcare’s Vscan Extend handheld ultrasound for triage and diagnosis on the way to the hospital, and also as a teaching tool in the classroom, to help students become more familiar with anatomy.
In fact, a student recently diagnosed a fellow classmate – a 30-year-old paramedic in for recertification – with significant aortic stenosis.
“Being 30 years old, he thought he was pretty healthy,” Bonadonna says. “Many of the practitioners are surprised at what they find.”
Bonadonna has brought point-of-care ultrasound to medical tents for community races, using it to determine that a runner with a vigorously contracting heart needs to be given IV fluids.
