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Medical imageing offers life-saving insights into patient health—and perhaps no other imageing modality is more versatile and mobile than point-of-care ultrasound. 

In a fascinating dispatch from the Kurdish city of Duhok in northern Iraq, Dr. Christine Butts describes how point-of-care ultrasound is an indispensable tool for emergency physicians, especially when patients arrive unconscious and with no indication of an obvious malady.

Time is of the essence in an emergency situation, and may be the difference between life and death.  Ambulance crews on the front line must decide rapidly whether or not a patient is suffering from a life-threatening condition requiring specialist treatment, and point-of-care ultrasound can provide vital guidance. 

Time is of the essence in an emergency situation, and may be the difference between life and death. Ambulance crews on the front line must decide rapidly whether or not a patient is suffering from a lifethreatening condition requiring specialist treatment, and point-of-care ultrasound can provide vital guidance.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an essential everyday tool in sports medicine at the Clinica Ivre in Valencia, Spain. 

The Race Across America is billed as the world’s toughest bicycle race; a non-stop, coast-to-coast, transcontinental trek from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland. Racers cycle for over 3,000 miles across 12 states of frequently arid terrain, and climb 170,000 feet through three mountain ranges, with the fastest teams finishing in just over five days, and solo racers in under eight. 

During the Summer of 2017, a group of healthcare professionals – the majority from the Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca (HCUVA) in Murcia, Spain – travelled to Kenya in partnership with the Spanish NGO Cirugía Solidaria.

They brought along surgical equipment – from beds to lamps to scalpels – to create a first-rate hospital set-up, most of which was donated by HCUVA. 

FUJIFILM Sonosite is delighted to announce that we have recently sold our 100,000th system. 

A Sonosite X-Porte, our premier kiosk ultrasound system, was delivered to a hospital in California in early October. 

Point-of-care ultrasound is fast becoming a key instrumental technique in nephrology , supporting diagnostics and improving delivery of renal replacement therapy and subsequent vascular monitoring.

Increasingly, anaesthesiologists have been using ultrasound guidance to help visualise soft tissue anatomy and nerve location while performing regional nerve blocks. Correct placement of local anaesthetics lead to long lasting pain management and enhanced recovery times.

But beyond the block, how does ultrasound help anaesthesiologists do their jobs?

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

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.

Audrey E. Stryker, MD, an Ob/Gyn and partner at Women's Ob-Gyn, P.C., has been traveling to underdeveloped countries with Sonosite ultrasound systems since 2004. As a part of the IWISH Foundation (International Women & Infant Sustainable Healthcare), she and her colleagues recently travelled to Haiti to help train the next generation of medical professionals.

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?

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?

by Rich Fabian, Chief Operating Officer, FUJIFILM Sonosite

What departments are the heaviest users of point-of-care ultrasound in an American-based hospital?

The answer varies from hospital to hospital, but we usually see Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, Critical Care and Anaesthesiology rounding out the heavyweight users of bedside ultrasound.

There are a lot of things Las Vegas is known for – gambling, over-the-top entertainment, and world-class dining. Now there’s one more thing to add to that list: ACEP 2016 – the leading event for emergency medicine. In a few days, thousands of emergency medical professionals from around the globe will gather for ACEP16, an immersive experience that goes beyond what typical medical conferences offer. So what makes ACEP16 so important?

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.

Anaesthetists working in perioperative medicine have increasingly taken a whole body approach to patient evaluation known as TUBE – Total Ultrasound Body Examination – thanks to the development of point-of-care ultrasound.

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.

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.