Transfer of real-time ultrasound video of FAST examinations from a simulated disaster scene via a mobile phone

Prehospital Ultrasound: A Narrative Review

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound is rapidly becoming more prevalent in the prehospital environment. Though considered a relatively new intervention in this setting, there is growing literature that aims to explore the use of prehospital ultrasound by EMS personnel.Methods: To better understand and report the state of the science on prehospital ultrasound, we conducted a narrative review of the literature.Results: Following a keyword search of MEDLINE in Ovid from inception to August 2, 2022, 2,564 records were identified and screened. Based on review of abstracts and full texts, with addition of seven articles via bibliography review, 193 records were included. Many included studies detail usage in air medical and other critical care transport environments. Clinicians performing prehospital ultrasound are often physicians or other advanced practice personnel who have previous ultrasound experience, which facilitates implementation in the prehospital setting. Emerging literature details training programs for prehospital personnel who are novices to ultrasound, and implementation for some study types appears feasible without prior experience. Unique use scenarios that show promise include during critical care transport, for triage in austere settings, and for thoracic evaluation of patients at risk of life-threatening pathology.Conclusion: There is a growing mostly observational body of literature describing the use of ultrasound by prehospital personnel. Prehospital ultrasound has demonstrated feasibility for specific conditions, yet interventional studies evaluating benefit to patient outcomes are absent.

Tele-ultrasound in the Era of COVID-19: A Practical Guide

Telemedicine has evolved over the past 50 years, with video consultations and telehealth (TH) mobile apps that are now widely used to support care in the management of chronic conditions, but are infrequently used in acute conditions such as emergencies. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand is growing for video consultations as they minimize health provider-patient interactions and thereby the risk of infection. Advanced applications such as tele-ultrasound (TUS) have not yet gained a foothold despite their achieving technical maturity and the availability of software from numerous companies for TUS for their respective portable ultrasound devices. However, ultrasound is indispensable for triage in emergencies and also offers distinct advantages in the diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia for certain patient populations such as pregnant women, children and immobilized patients. Additionally, recent work suggests lung ultrasound can accurately risk stratify patients for likely infection when immediate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing is not available and has prognostic utility for positive patients with respect to the need for admission and intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. Though currently underutilized, a wider implementation of TUS in TH applications and processes may be an important stepping-stone for telemedicine. The addition of ultrasound to TH may allow it to cross the barrier from being an application used mainly for primary care and chronic conditions to an indispensable tool used in emergency care, disaster situations, remote areas and low-income countries where it is difficult to obtain high-quality diagnostic imaging. The objective of this review was to provide an overview of the current state of telemedicine, insights into current and future use scenarios, its practical application as well as current TUS uses and their potential value with an overview of currently available portable and handheld ultrasound devices. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic we point out an unmet need and use case of TUS as a supportive tool for health care providers and organizations in the management of affected patients.

Instructing Ultrasound-guided Examination Techniques Using a Social Media Smartphone App

Social media applications on smartphones allow for new avenues of instruction in sports medicine and exercise sciences. This study tested the feasibility of instructing health care personnel through videos of ultrasound vascular measurements distributed by a social media messenger application. After two training sessions with an ultrasound device, voluntary physicians (n=10) and nurses (n=10) received a video for the performance of an ultrasound-guided determination of intima-media-thickness and diameter of the femoral arteries via a social media messenger application. All participants examined the same healthy human subject. There was no significant difference between the groups regarding overall time of performance, measurements of the femoral arteries, or a specifically designed "assessment of mobile imparted arterial ultrasound determination" score. The physicians group achieved significantly higher scores in the established "objective structured assessment of ultrasound skills" score (p=0.019). Approval of the setting was high in both groups. Transmission of videos via social media applications can be used for instructions on the performance of ultrasound-guided vascular examinations in sports medicine, even if investigators' performances differ depending on their grade of ultrasound experience. In the future, the chosen approach should be tested in practical scientific examination settings.

Telesonography in emergency medicine: A systematic review

Ultrasound is an efficacious, versatile and affordable imaging technique in emergencies, but has limited utility without expert interpretation. Telesonography, in which experts may remotely support the use of ultrasound through a telecommunications link, may broaden access to ultrasound and improve patient outcomes, particularly in remote settings. This review assesses the literature regarding telesonography in emergency medicine, focussing on evidence of feasibility, diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility. A systematic search was performed for articles published from 1946 to February 2017 using the Cochrane, Medline, EMBASE, and CINAHL databases. Further searches utilising Scopus, Google Scholar, and citation lists were conducted. 4388 titles were identified and screened against inclusion criteria which resulted in the inclusion of 28 papers. These included feasibility, diagnostic accuracy and clinical pilot studies. Study design, methodology and quality were heterogeneous. There was good evidence of feasibility from multiple studies. Where sufficient bandwidth and high quality components were used, diagnostic accuracy was slightly reduced by image transmission. There was evidence of clinical utility in remote hospitals and low-resource settings, although reliability was infrequently reported. Further exploratory research is required to determine minimum requirements for image quality, bandwidth, frame rate and to assess diagnostic accuracy. Clinical trials in remote settings are justifiable. Telecommunication options will depend on local requirements; no one system conveys universal advantages. The methodological quality of research in this field must improve: studies should be designed to minimise bias, and must include details of their methods to allow replication. Analysis of cost effectiveness and sustainability should be provided.

Major Trauma Outside a Trauma Center: Prehospital, Emergency Department, and Retrieval Considerations

Care of the critically injured begins well before the patient arrives at a large academic trauma center. It is important to understand the continuum of care from the point of injury in the prehospital environment, through the local hospital and retrieval, until arrival at a trauma center capable of definitive care. This article highlights the important aspects of trauma assessment and management outside of tertiary or quaternary care hospitals. Key elements of each phase of care are reviewed, including management pearls and institutional strategies to facilitate effective and efficient treatment of trauma patients from the point of injury forward.

Emergency thoracic ultrasound and clinical risk management

PURPOSE

Thoracic ultrasound (TUS) has been proposed as an easy-option replacement for chest X-ray (CXR) in emergency diagnosis of pneumonia, pleural effusion, and pneumothorax. We investigated CXR unforeseen diagnosis, subsequently investigated by TUS, considering its usefulness in clinical risk assessment and management and also assessing the sustainability of telementoring.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This observational report includes a period of 6 months with proactive concurrent adjunctive TUS diagnosis telementoring, which was done using freely available smartphone applications for transfer of images and movies.

RESULTS

Three hundred and seventy emergency TUS scans (excluding trauma patients) were performed and telementored. In 310 cases, no significant chest pathology was detected either by CXR, TUS, or the subsequent work-up; in 24 patients, there was full concordance between TUS and CXR (ten isolated pleural effusion; eleven pleural effusion with lung consolidations; and three lung consolidation without pleural effusion); in ten patients with lung consolidations, abnormalities identified by CXR were not detected by TUS. In 26 patients, only TUS diagnosis criteria of disease were present: in 19 patients, CXR was not diagnostic, ie, substantially negative, but TUS detected these conditions correctly, and these were later confirmed by computed tomography (CT). In seven patients, even if chest disease was identified by CXR, such diagnoses were significantly modified by ultrasound, and CT confirmed that TUS was more appropriate. The overall respective individual performances of CXR and TUS for the diagnosis of a pleural-pulmonary disease in emergency are good, with accuracy >95%.

CONCLUSION

About 20% of pneumonia cases were detectable only by CXR and 20% only by TUS and not by CXR; ie, about 40% of patients may have been misdiagnosed if, by chance, only one of the two tools had been used. The concurrent use of TUS and CXR increases the overall sensitivity and specificity. The contribution of expert telementoring and final reappraisal is a valuable and sustainable element for emergency physicians' training and performance, contributing reasonably to mitigation of clinical risks.

Remote just-in-time telementored trauma ultrasound: a double-factorial randomized controlled trial examining fluid detection and remote knobology control through an ultrasound graphic user interface display

BACKGROUND

Remote-telementored ultrasound involves novice examiners being remotely guided by experts using informatic-technologies. However, requiring a novice to perform ultrasound is a cognitively demanding task exacerbated by unfamiliarity with ultrasound-machine controls. We incorporated a randomized evaluation of using remote control of the ultrasound functionality (knobology) within a study in which the images generated by distant naive examiners were viewed on an ultrasound graphic user interface (GUI) display viewed on laptop computers by mentors in different cities.

METHODS

Fire-fighters in Edmonton (101) were remotely mentored from Calgary (n = 65), Nanaimo (n = 19), and Memphis (n = 17) to examine an ultrasound phantom randomized to contain free fluid or not. Remote mentors (2 surgeons, 1 internist, and 1 ED physician) were randomly assigned to use GUI knobology control during mentoring (GUIK+/GUIK-).

RESULTS

Remote-telementored ultrasound was feasible in all cases. Overall accuracy for fluid detection was 97% (confidence interval = 91 to 99%) with 3 false negatives (FNs). Positive/negative likelihood ratios were infinity/0.0625. One FN occurred with the GUIK+ and 2 without (GUIK-). There were no statistical test performance differences in either group (GUIK+ and GUIK-).

CONCLUSIONS

Ultrasound-naive 1st responders can be remotely mentored with high accuracy, although providing basic remote control of the knobology did not affect outcomes.

Mobile Technology for the Practice of Pathology

Recently, several technological advances have been introduced to mobile phones leading some people to refer to them as "smartphones." These changes have led to widespread consumer adoption. A similar adoption has occurred within the medical field and this revolution is changing the practice of medicine, including pathology. Several mobile applications have been published for dermatology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, neurosurgery, and clinical pathology. The applications are wide ranging, including mobile technology to increase patient engagement, self-monitoring by patients, clinical algorithm calculation, facilitation between experts to resource-poor environments. These advances have been received with mixed reviews. For anatomic pathology, mobile technology applications can be broken into 4 broad categories: (a) educational uses, (b) microscope with mobile phone, (c) mobile phone as microscope/acquisition device, and (d) miscellaneous. Using a mobile phone as an acquisition device paired with a microscope seems to be the most interesting current application because of the need for expert consultation with resource-poor environments. However, several emerging uses for mobile technology may become more prominent as the technology matures including image analysis, alternative light sources, and increased opportunities for clinician and patient engagement. The flexibility represented by mobile technology represents a burgeoning field in pathology informatics.

Rural ED transfers due to lack of radiology services

PURPOSE

Our objectives were to determine the frequency of patient transfers to a tertiary care emergency department (Tertiary ED) due to a lack of radiology services in rural hospital EDs (Rural EDs), and examine the community and patient attributes that are associated with these transfers.

METHODS

This was a retrospective chart review of patients transferred to a Tertiary ED from Rural EDs. Transfers excluded from the study included pediatric patients (age <18 years old) and patients transferred for trauma surgeon evaluation. Only those patients who were transferred for radiology services were included in the final analysis.

RESULTS

Over a 12-month period, 1445 patients were transferred to the Tertiary ED with 73.8% (n = 1066) of this population being transferred from a Rural ED. Excluding 381 trauma and pediatric patients, 64.3% (n = 685) of patients were transferred from a Rural ED and were included in the study. Of these 685 transfers, 24.5% (n = 168) were determined to be due primarily to a lack of a radiology service.

DISCUSSION

Lack of radiology services in Rural EDs leads to numerous patient transfers to the Tertiary ED each year. A disproportionate number of these transfer patients are African American. These transfers place additional financial and social burdens on patients and their families. This study discusses these findings and alternative diagnostic options (ie, telemedicine and ultrasound video transfer) to address the lack of radiology services available in Rural EDs. The use of these alternate diagnostic options will likely reduce the number of patient transfers to Tertiary EDs.

Smartphone applications with sensors used in a tertiary hospital-current status and future challenges

Smartphones have been widely used recently to monitor heart rate and activity, since they have the necessary processing power, non-invasive and cost-effective sensors, and wireless communication capabilities. Consequently, healthcare applications (apps) using smartphone-based sensors have been highlighted for non-invasive physiological monitoring. In addition, several healthcare apps have received FDA clearance. However, in spite of their potential, healthcare apps with smartphone-based sensors are mostly used outside of hospitals and have not been widely adopted for patient care in hospitals until recently. In this paper, we describe the experience of using smartphone apps with sensors in a large medical center in Korea. Among >20 apps developed in our medical center, four were extensively analyzed ("My Cancer Diary", "Point-of-Care HIV Check", "Blood Culture" and "mAMIS"), since they use smartphone-based sensors such as the camera and barcode reader to enter data into the electronic health record system. By analyzing the usage patterns of these apps for data entry with sensors, the current limitations of smartphone-based sensors in a clinical setting, hurdles against adoption in the medical center, benefits of smartphone-based sensors and potential future research directions could be evaluated.

Portable ultrasound in disaster triage: a focused review

Ultrasound technology has become ubiquitous in modern medicine. Its applications span the assessment of life-threatening trauma or hemodynamic conditions, to elective procedures such as image-guided peripheral nerve blocks. Sonographers have utilized ultrasound techniques in the pre-hospital setting, emergency departments, operating rooms, intensive care units, outpatient clinics, as well as during mass casualty and disaster management. Currently available ultrasound devices are more affordable, portable, and feature user-friendly interfaces, making them well suited for use in the demanding situation of a mass casualty incident (MCI) or disaster triage. We have reviewed the existing literature regarding the application of sonology in MCI and disaster scenarios, focusing on the most promising and practical ultrasound-based paradigms applicable in these settings.

Out of hospital point of care ultrasound: current use models and future directions

INTRODUCTION

Ultrasound has evolved from a modality that was once exclusively reserved to certain specialities of its current state, in which its portability and durability lend to its broadly increasing applications.

OBJECTIVES

This review describes portable ultrasound in the hospital setting and its comparison to gold standard imaging modalities. Also, this review summarizes current literature describing portable ultrasound use in prehospital, austere and remote environments, highlighting successes and barriers to use in these environments.

DISCUSSION

Prehospital ultrasound has the ability to increase diagnostic ability and allow for therapeutic intervention in the field. In austere environments, ultrasound may be the only available imaging modality and thus can guide diagnosis, therapeutics and determine which patients may need emergent transfer to a healthcare facility. The most cutting edge applications of portable ultrasound employ telemedicine to obtain and transmit ultrasound images. This technology and ability to transmit images via satellite and cellular transmission can allow for even novice users to obtain interpretable images in austere environments. Portable ultrasound uses have steadily grown and will continue to do so with the introduction of more portable and durable technologies. As applications continue to grow, certain technologic considerations and future directions are explored.

Transfer of real-time ultrasound video of FAST examinations from a simulated disaster scene via a mobile phone

OBJECTIVE

Disaster management is a complex and difficult undertaking that may involve limited health care resources and evaluation of multiple victims. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the feasibility of real-time ultrasound video transmission from a simulated disaster triage location via commercially available video mobile phones and assess the ability of emergency physicians to accurately interpret the transmitted video of Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) ultrasound examinations.

METHODS

This was a prospective, observational study that took place at a simulated disaster scene put on for an Advanced Disaster Life Support (ADLS) course. The second component occurred at a Level I academic urban emergency department (ED) with an annual census of 78,000. Nineteen subjects at a simulated disaster scene were scanned using a SonoSite Titan ultrasound system (Bothell, Washington USA). An off-the-shelf, basic, video-capable mobile phone was used to record each ultrasound examination; and then immediately transmit the videos to another mobile phone approximately 170 miles away. The transmitted video was received by three emergency physicians with hospital credentialing in emergency ultrasound. Each FAST examination video was assessed for pathology, such as free fluid. The reviewers graded the image quality and documented the overall confidence level regarding whether or not a complete and adequate examination was visualized. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was used to examine the agreement between the reviewers and the sonologist who performed the ultrasound examinations.

RESULTS

A total of 19 videos were transmitted. The median time for transmission of a video was 82.5 seconds (95% CI, 67.7 seconds-97.3 seconds). No video failed to transmit correctly on the first attempt. The image quality ratings for the three reviewers were 7.7, 7.5, and 7.4 on a 10-point Likert scale. There was a moderate agreement between the reviewers and sonologist in image quality rating and overall confidence level scores (rho = 0.6).

CONCLUSIONS

Real-time portable ultrasound video transmission via commercially available video mobile phones from a simulated disaster triage location is feasible and emergency physicians were able to accurately interpret video of FAST ultrasound examinations.