United Medical Instruments - Diagnostic Ultrasound Blog!

 Part I

Welcome to the first installment of Jeanette's Journeys! Jeanette is the National Marketing Manager for United Medical Instruments, Inc. and not only gives stellar product training to the sales reps, but also travels to customer sites addressing questions, providing SonoSite, Toshiba, and Siemens ultrasound system training, as well as ensuring customers are completely happy with their ultrasound purchase. When not involved at a customer site or developing marketing programs, you can find her at a tradeshow. She is a major contributor to the success of UMI, and hopefully you enjoy reading our blogs based on Jeanette's Journeys!

East Coast Sales Director, Jerry Michel, consulted with Virginia Vascular Surgical Center to determine which SonoSite portable ultrasound system would meet the needs of this friendly yet busy Davita Dialysis Center. Post sale customer support was requested to address the customer concerns of:

• Performing flow volume exams
• Identifying shortcuts for faster patient throughput
• Training a new staff member

Gregg L. Londrey, MD, a board certified vascular and general surgeon, and site Medical Director, his wife Joy, an RN, and colleague Dave all manage the vascular surgical center. The Center "offers the latest state-of-the-art equipment and non-invasive procedures to evaluate arterial, cerebral, and venous diseases." To learn more about their facility visit Vasurgical.com

Prior to Jeanette's arrival, the customer realized she needed to exchange the transducer they originally purchased for a different one and after working with Jerry and receiving the probe in 24 hours, Joy confidently said "Your company has the best customer service I have ever received....It was great to speak to a person and get immediate results." With the right equipment in hand, Jeanette's training began. Jeanette brings over 20 years of sonography experience and is a RDMS, RVT, and RPhS so putting together a customized shortcut for Joy's clinical team Amy, Dave, and Scott was second nature and very helpful for the end users. To get your copy of the Dialysis Access Fistula Exam Tips click here. Knowing there was a need to increase patient throughput she also created vascular access quick cards for the SonoSite Micromaxx and M-Turbo. Having been trained on flow volume exams, provided with shortcuts, and given knobology training for the staff, the team at Virginia Vascular Surgical Center is happy, and ready to treat patients. Another successful customer install, this time in Virginia. Stay tuned for the next stop in Jeanette's Journeys!

For years patients have suffered from a variety of pain-type complaints from back pain or knee pain to carpal tunnel syndrome. Advances in medicine and portable ultrasound machines are providing relief for these patients by utilizing ultrasound for needle guided injections. For example, the AC joint at the top of the shoulder is difficult to locate due to its small size and variable anatomy. A 2006 study showed a 60% failure rate for these joint injections, Bisbinas I, et al. Accuracy of needle placement in ACJ injections. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2006 Aug;14(8):762-5.

However, portable ultrasound machines such as the SonoSite M-Turbo or Toshiba Viamo are easy to use and feature a needle visualization software that “lights up” as the needle penetrates the skin and moves toward the area of interest. Clinicians using this technology vary from orthopedic surgeons to rheumatologists to osteopaths. Osteopathic medicine in particular is primed to embrace this technology as their practice is centered around the musculoskeletal system and joint injections have been part of patient therapy. Utilizing prolotherapy for treatment they are now able to incorporate ultrasound to capture a pre and post image of the joint, tendon or ligament, as well as improve their accuracy in joint injections.

In 2010, a group of rheumatologists conducted a study, led by Wilmer Sibbitt, Jr., M.D from University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which found that there was a 107% increase in patient response rate when utilizing ultrasound for needle guided injections compared to joint injections given by palpation only. In addition, “study results showed the ultrasound method led to a 14.6% (US$48) reduction in cost per participant per year and a 58.8% ($593) reduction in the cost per hospital-outpatient participant who responded to the treatment.”

Physicians describe the preferred ultrasound system to be portable, have high resolution imaging, a high frequency transducer, and be non-cumbersome since they are typically holding the probe with one hand and injecting with the other.

As ultrasound systems become smaller and the need for a quicker diagnosis becomes greater, point-of-care ultrasound has become an expanding market. The definition of this term is that those who have not been formally trained on ultrasound physics and anatomy are actually the healthcare providers now conducting the ultrasound scans for specific procedures such as vein care, needle placement, assessing organ trauma or disease.

A new challenge on the horizon is how to supply astronauts with quality imaging devices to diagnose potential medical conditions while they are on a mission in space. Portable ultrasound is one solution in providing point-of-care ultrasound to the men and women who are away from technology found on earth. Dr. Scott Dulchavsky, surgeon-in-chief at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, is collaborating with the International Space Station to develop training, protocol, and recommend appropriate ultrasound equipment to provide the space teams with diagnostic capabilities.

While there are a variety of portable ultrasound systems available, SonoSite has carved out a niche in point-of-care ultrasound. These laptop-sized units weigh 10 pounds, have a lightening fast boot up time and are developed with ease-of use in mind. Training can then be centered around teaching these non-physicians to recognize anatomy and pathology, interpret the ultrasound images they are capturing and arrive at a diagnosis.

Some experts claim that the point-of-care ultrasound market takes a step backward in the field of ultrasound, so perhaps instead of an on-the- job training approach, serious consideration should be given to attending ultrasound workshops provided by specialists such as SonoSite or Advanced Health Education Center. As portable ultrasound machines are taken into space, proper training and easy to use ultrasound machines will allow our astronauts to receive quality care off the planet as well as on it.