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The role of the anesthesiologist is evolving to include perioperative care

With hospitals seeking innovative ways to streamline patient care and improve outcomes, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to provide patient care beyond general anesthesia and nerve blocks. But beyond the block, how does perioperative ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs?

The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine.

Anyone who has ever tried to change the way medicine is practised knows that inertia makes it difficult to get buy-in from colleagues and administrators. Introducing a relatively familiar technology, like point-of-care ultrasound, into a broader hospital setting might not seem like a difficult task, but all procedural changes face some kind of resistance.

Are you a pulmonologist, interventional pulmonologist, or thoracic surgeon? Check out our webinar “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease,” from the Endoscopy Division of FUJIFILM.

Osgood-Schlatter disease is a developmental disorder that causes musculoskeletal problems and is rare in the normal population. However, the condition is more common in teenagers who play sports, affecting an estimated 3-5% percent of this population; it causes painful inflammation below the knee in adolescents and can lead to permanent soft tissue damage.

Did you know that Sonosite’s first mission was to create an ultrasound machine that could be carried into battle? The concept was simple: Get treatment to a trauma victim by giving a frontline clinician an ultrasound machine that could be brought to the patient’s side. Now point-of-care ultrasound is used around the world for an ever growing variety of clinical applications and procedures.

Since point-of-care ultrasound systems were originally designed for dealing with emergencies in a battlefield setting, it's not surprising that ultrasound now plays a pivotal role in emergency vehicles around the world. Dr Ramón de Elías Hernandez, head of on-call doctors at SAMUR, Madrid’s municipal emergency service, describes the advantages that point-of-care ultrasound brings to his everyday life.

Central line complications: they’re risky, costly, and all-around burden to healthcare. Whether it’s CLABSIs or iatrogenic pneumothoraces, CVC complications are not just terrifying for patients and unnerving for doctors; they are also costly for medical facilities.

Sonosite was recently graced with visiting doctors from around the country, one of which was Dr Byron Patterson who is a partner in Primary Care Sports Medicine in Tarzana California.  He made a wonderful presentation to more than 160 employees about ultrasound applications in sports medicine.

Amsterdam, 19th of January 2016.

[This is translated to English from the Netherland’s news paper]

The ambulances in Rotterdam Netherlands during the coming 5 months are equipped with ultrasound imaging that could be life saving with people with an AAA.

Newly increased:  Deduct up to $500k on ultrasound through December 31!

Increase quality of patient care by adding ultrasound to your practice by utilizing tax incentives and 0% financing available through December 2015.

Ultrasound educator Ingrid Yuile took her training skills and Sonosite EDGE to the steppes of Mongolia and found a country of beauty and complexity.  This is her story…

The trend towards interoperability is palpable and what better way to underscore this positive movement than HIMSS 2015 conference which broke all time attendance records. FUJIFILM Sonosite is at the forefront of clinical workflow optimization and health IT interoperability. The need to connect modalities, especially Ultrasound, to EMRs and other Health IT systems is significant and FFSS is taking concrete steps to achieve this important goal.

Dr J. Christian Fox, a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at UC Irvine, is a self-professed “Sono-Evangelist.”

Dr. Liz Turner, Director of Bedside Ultrasound for the Dept. of Medicine at UCLA, puts bedside ultrasound under the microscope.

Dr. Francis Yamazaki is a 30 year veteran in Anesthesiology. He is an Anesthesiologist with a cutting edge sports medicine group at Kerlan Jobe Surgery Center, LA. In this interview, he discusses the expectations of patients in the elite world of sports and the progression of anesthesia, particularly in the realm of nerve blocks. In particular how the progress of technology has improved safety for both patients and surgeons.

I feel confidence in knowing where the tip of that needle is and I think that is a big deal. AxoTrack clearly contributes to the accuracy of the procedure; I think that’s what it brings to the game. --Mark P. Mercier, MD, Attending Physician, Emergency Medicine, Beaufort Memorial Hospital