The Range of POCUS: Emergency Rooms to Vascular Access to Intensive Care Training

Range of POCUS
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. Here's three user stories of how Sonosite systems have helped clinicians expand the range of what's possible using portable ultrasound.  …

User Stories: Madrid's Emergency Services and Portable Ultrasound

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. …

2017 - The Year For Expansion In Ultrasound-Guided Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures

HealthCare Business News Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA With the future of the Affordable Care Act in flux, this may be a time for healthcare providers to evaluate their practices and see how they provide more for their patients and communities. By expanding service offerings, healthcare providers can attract more patients and elevate their patient's level of satisfaction. Read this article to find out how 2017 may be the year for expansion of ultrasound-guided surgical procedures using ultrasound guided breast biopsies as an example. …

Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Program Saves St. Joseph's $3.5 Million

Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality Matthew Ostroff, ARNP The American College of Emergency Physicians issued a policy statement in 2016 advocating a new safety standard for vascular access through the use of ultrasound guidance. St. Joseph's Healthcare System, in Paterson, N.J., launched a program that has yielded significant safety and quality of care improvements for all patients requiring vascular access. This article describes how St. Joseph's cut healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes by achieving the "one-stick standard". …

User Stories: St. Joseph's Reduces Time and Cost with POCUS Vascular Access

If you had to choose between inserting a PICC line (40-45 minutes) and inserting a PIV with ultrasound guidance (5-10 minutes), which would you choose to perform? What if your patient weighed less than 5 lbs? Or more than 500? When you’re working with some of the smallest, most vulnerable patients, every single needle stick matters more than ever. Whether injecting critical medicine or drawing blood, St. Joseph’s Healthcare System in Paterson, New Jersey, strives to minimize patient pain during needle insertion. …

Reducing The Opioid Epidemic with POC Ultrasound

Every day, 91 Americans die from opioid (prescription drugs or heroin) overdoses. This is the worst drug epidemic in the history of the United States. How can emergency physicians help patients manage pain without accidentally getting them addicted to prescription opioids? …

User Stories: Point-of-Care Ultrasound Aids Elephant Conservation in Vietnam

User Stories
Vietnam’s wild elephant population has dropped from over 2,000 animals to less than 100 in 20 years, making the country’s 60 or so captive elephants vital to preserving the genetic lines of this critically endangered species. …

Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care - Beyond the Block

Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care
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. …

Beyond the Block: Why Would an Anesthesiologist Use Ultrasound?

 Increasingly, anesthesiologists have been using ultrasound guidance to help visualize soft tissue anatomy and nerve location while performing regional nerve blocks. Correct placement of local anesthetics lead to long lasting pain management and enhanced
Increasingly, anesthesiologists have been using ultrasound guidance to help visualize soft tissue anatomy and nerve location while performing regional nerve blocks. Correct placement of local anesthetics lead to long lasting pain management and enhanced recovery times. But beyond the block, how does ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs? The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine. …

Beyond the Block: Why Would an Anesthesiologist Use Ultrasound?

Increasingly, anesthesiologists have been using ultrasound guidance to help visualize soft tissue anatomy and nerve location while performing regional nerve blocks. Correct placement of local anesthetics lead to long lasting pain management and enhanced recovery times. But beyond the block, how does ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs? The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine. …

Watch the Value of Endobronchial Ultrasound Webinar

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. More people die every year from lung cancer than from colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. In August 2016, we aired “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease.” It’s a timely and informative webinar led by David Feller-Kopman, MD, Director of Bronchoscopy & Interventional Pulmonology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a world-renowned expert in his field. …

Integrating Ultrasound Services Into Your Practice - Five Reasons December 2016 Could Be The Right Time

Becker's Hospital Review Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA Since the election there have been many articles written discussing the future of the Affordable Care Act under a President-Elect Trump Administration and a Republican Congress. It is important that physicians and office administrators understand the real impact by reading this article. …

Ultrasound Answers Questions in Emergency Care in Spain

Ultrasound crtical to stabilizing patients and saving lives
In the world of emergency medicine, there’s nothing fun about the guessing game. With a seriously ill or injured patient, every second counts and the wrong diagnosis can actually have a significant impact on health. That’s why having all available information is absolutely critical to stabilizing patients and saving lives. That’s also what makes point-of-care ultrasound so critically important in emergency care. …

Fetal Ultrasound of Pregnant SeaWorld Manatee

Pregnant Manatee Returned to the Wild
When you think of manatee migration, you don’t normally picture aircraft.But that is how Washburn the pregnant manatee was transported from Massachusetts, where she was rescued (just off the coast) to Sea World in Orlando, Florida, where she spent 2 weeks recuperating. …

Ultrasound Guided Nerve Blocks, Not Opioids, for Post-Operative Pain Management

Dr. Sonia Szlyk, an anesthesiologist and director of regional anesthesia for North American Partners in  Anesthesia's Mid-Atlantic division, explains how local anesthesia (aided by ultrasound guidance) is  helping control post-operative discomfort wit
It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the throes of a major heroin epidemic, at least partly caused by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers by well-meaning physicians. When it comes to perioperative pain control, there are new ways to tackle patient discomfort without resorting to prescription opioids. …

Sonosite Institute: Paravertebral Nerve Block Education Module

Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module
Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module. This module will show you how to: …

User Stories: 25 Years of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Anaesthesia

Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role p
Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role point-of-care ultrasound now plays in anaesthesia.  "My first encounters with ultrasound were guided by efforts in Heidelberg to improve epidural anaesthesia in obstetrics. …

User Stories: A Clear Path for Ambulatory Care

Anaesthetist Dr Philippe Grillo explains the role of point-of-care ultrasound in ensuring effective nerve blocks and post-operative pain relief.
The Clinique Juge is a Marseille clinic specialising in ambulatory surgery. Combining regional anaesthesia with focused pre- and post-operative care, the clinic aims to allow patients to return home soon after orthopaedic surgery, often on the same day as their procedure. Anaesthetist Dr Philippe Grillo explains the benefits of this approach, and the role of point-of-care ultrasound in ensuring effective nerve blocks and post-operative pain relief. …

Clinical Chest Professionals, Here's Our Guide to CHEST2016

Has it really been a year already? We’re back in LA this week for another edition of CHEST, the premier clinical event for chest medicine in the U.S. We love CHEST because the show connects a global community around not just networking and new technology, but brings together new research, instruction and interactive simulations too. If you’re a veteran of CHEST you probably know your way around the show. If you haven’t been before or need a refresher, here’s our quick “Guide to CHEST2016.”   …

Proposed CMS Hospital Outpatient Department Rule Detrimental for Imaging Services in CY 2017

Healthcare Business News Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA In this article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun discusses the proposed CMS hospital outpatient department rule and how it will impact imaging services in CY 2017. Read more to understand how payments may be restructured to reduce the total number of classifications. …