What differentiates FUJIFILM Sonosite?
Sonosite was founded with a mission to provide ultrasound machines that were tough and portable enough to withstand the chaos of battlefield hospitals. However, our interest in providing useful medical solutions did not end with the military; instead, it grew over time. Sonosite began to see the potential for portable ultrasound to improve patient outcomes in almost any medical setting.
The FUJIFILM Sonosite India Team
Today, FUJIFILM Sonosite is the world leader in portable ultrasound solutions for the point of care. But how did we get here? And why should any of it matter to Indian physicians who use our products?
Sonosite’s Founding Pillars
As we began to develop products for physicians outside of the military, we collaborated with physicians, paramedics, and sonographers to find out how and why ultrasound is used in the point of care setting. How do doctors interact with an ultrasound machine, and with their patients? What features do they need, and which are superfluous? And how can we create an ultrasound solution that puts patient care, not technology, at the forefront of that interaction?
Then, we set about designing Ultrasound systems that meet the needs of these physicians. In fact, every year, we devote thousands of hours to interviewing and observing ultrasound users to find out how they work with our products, and how we can improve them. We visit hospitals and clinics and bring doctors to our headquarters to provide feedback on current and new Ultrasound machine designs.
It is because of this collaboration that we learned that doctors wanted and needed portable ultrasound systems that were usable, durable, and reliable. Also, doctors new to using ultrasound technology on a regular basis needed training and ultrasound education to become proficient.
Highly usable ultrasound machines
Why does ultrasound usability matter? Physicians use our Ultrasound products during both intricate surgical procedures and everyday medical check-ups, so it was crucial that our Ultrasound machines feature physical controls and software interfaces that were easily learnable by a wide range of practitioners in varied situations. Complicated controls and confusing screen menus would only decelerate doctors, which make them less likely to use ultrasound to streamline patient care and improve diagnoses and procedure accuracy.
Durable ultrasound machines
Why do ultrasound machine durability and reliability matter? By definition, a portable ultrasound machine is going to be moved around; in the process, it may get dropped, or banged against a door, or have liquid spilled on its keyboard. So we knew that we must build portable ultrasound systems that could withstand a meter’s drop and still work. Our machines and transducers also had to be designed to limit liquid ingress. Sonosite’s ultrasound machines’ sealed keyboards protect the technology inside. And our transducers can be fully immersed in water and still function. In fact, we are so confident about the reliability of Sonosite ultrasound systems that new machines and transducers are backed by a 5-year warranty.
Educating doctors on using ultrasound every day
Finally, Sonosite are committed to ultrasound education. No other ultrasound manufacturer is as dedicated to providing educational opportunities for medical professionals in learning point-of-care ultrasound than FUJIFILM Sonosite. After all, what good is a portable, user-friendly, durable ultrasound machine in a doctor’s office or operating room if physicians aren’t able to make use of the images? Making ultrasound diagnoses is both an art and a science, and it takes training and practice to become proficient at it.
As such, Sonosite provides online how-to guides and videos, medical images that differentiate healthy and pathological ultrasound images, and additional clinical media – all free to view or download. Our website features ultrasound learning materials that are first destinations for many physicians approaching ultrasound in daily practice for the first time.
We’ve also developed an ultrasound learning app for mobile devices called SonoAccess. Over 65,000 users have downloaded the no-cost Ultrasound app in India, and the app is used in nearly every country in the world.
Beyond these no-cost, publicly available Ultrasound educational options, Sonosite customers have access to Sonosite Institute, an advanced training platform with speciality-specific ultrasound training modules and physician-led webinars that help both new and experienced ultrasound users update their skill sets. As Sonosite develops additional Ultrasound clinical content, it is uploaded to these portals.
You will also find Sonosite attending and sponsoring hundreds of ultrasound workshops, learning labs, ultrasound conferences and society meetings, and ultrasound educational events around the world every year.
This is blog post 2 of 4. Please check back to read about our Ultrasound educational efforts in India and what the next ten years hold for our company.