Personal Laptop or Sonography Scanner?
"Simply attach the probe to your laptop computer using a standard USB cable, install the software and you're ready to scan."
That's the latest approach to providing highly affordable sonography scanners; ones that convert any personal laptop into a diagnostic sonography system by having all the necessary hardware in the probe itself. The hardware, which is supplied with the required software and usually operates on any PC, only costs a few thousand dollars.
The concept of the personal laptop computer-based scanner dates back to the year 2000, when Terason introduced its first commercially available system utilizing "ultrasound-system-on-a-chip" technology. Since then, thousands of their scanners have been shipped throughout the world.
More recently, an Apple MacBook Pro laptop has been the foundation for Siemens Medical Solutions' own version of the ultra-portable, battery-operated scanner. The Acuson P50, as its called, has a number of proprietary echocardiography and vascular calculation capabilities as well as an integrated stress echo package. Thus, the system can be used for not only the usual diagnostic exams but even for more advanced applications, which would make it attractive to a wide range of users. However, the P50's ultrasound hardware cannot be removed from the laptop, which makes the overall size of the system significantly larger and more expensive than a standard laptop system.
The latest versions are virtually indistinguishable from your run-of-the mill laptop computer (except for the transducer attached via the USB port) and a lot less expensive than previous versions. The systems don't require any super-computer capabilities. In fact, I've heard that, in some cases, any device that has a USB port can be used as a scanner.
There are probes for all typical sonography applications including vascular, echo, abdominal, endovaginal and endorectal scanning, as well as probes with biopsy guidance capabilities. Units that are currently available have all the usual modes of operation and other features you expect to find on a diagnostic scanner, including color and spectral Doppler, tissue harmonics, calculation packages and memory for image storage.
The obvious advantages to these are that you can choose to use your laptop for all the usual reasons (ie, word processing, Web browsing, emails, presentations, etc) and, when necessary, plug in the transducer and scan away.
Of course, this does raise some concerns over who will have access to the technology. However, aside from the relative low-cost of this approach, this isn't necessarily any worse than what's happening with other hand-carried scanners or even the 4D ultrasound units used for keepsake purposes. It will remain to be seen how the FDA regulates the sale of these systems.
There are several manufacturers producing this type of equipment. For more information, click on any of the links listed below.
MUSL Laboratories
Ardent Sound, Inc.
Direct Medical Systems
Laborie Medical Technologies