NETHERLANDS –Philips announced that its Collaboration Live integrated tele-ultrasound technology has received expanded FDA 510(k) clearance for remote diagnostic use on additional mobile platforms.
Collaboration Live, which is available on the company’s EPIQ and Affiniti ultrasound systems, enables clinicians to connect in real-time with colleagues to complete image acquisition and diagnosis regardless of location.
According to Philips, the expanded FDA clearance will significantly improve clinician efficiency and flexibility because they will no longer be limited to a personal computer (PC) when consulting with colleagues via Collaboration Live.
According to the company, the secure platform enables clinicians using Collaboration Live on the Philips EPIQ or Affiniti ultrasound systems to share the screen and video stream directly to compatible PCs and mobile devices of fellow clinicians.
“Sonographers no longer have to feel they are alone or limited to only acquiring ultrasound images and preparing a report for subsequent clinical review,” noted Gerois Di Marco, the general manager of global ultrasound services and solutions at Philips.
“They can now call on the expertise of colleagues during ultrasound examinations to deliver on the spot accurate diagnosis that every patient deserves.”
According to Philips, another advantage of the tele-ultrasound platform is the ability of the ultrasound user to cede control to the remote clinician, allowing him or her to make measurements, obtain a new image, or improve image quality.
“These combined features…provide the high diagnostic confidence needed to help optimize patient outcomes,” the company said.
Michael S. Ruma, MD, MPH, who is affiliated with Perinatal Associates of New Mexico, said the technology of Collaboration Live can have an impact in extending quality care to underserved communities.
“We have been able to open a strictly telemedicine office to serve our patients in rural communities because Collaboration Live enables us to carry out a full diagnostic visit remotely,” explained Dr. Ruma, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Farther afield, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, have developed a new method that can provide a clear and high-quality visualization using a reconstructed ultrasound image.
The analysis could lead to improved disease prognosis, detection of minute abnormalities, real-time image-guided biopsy procedures, and therapy monitoring functions.
The ultrasound imaging method is used to capture real-time images within the human body. It serves a variety of scientific purposes in the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.
The main component of an ultrasound machine is a “beamformer,” which plays an important role in the final reconstructed image high quality.
There have been a number of strategies identified over the years to improve the quality of the reconstructed image by changing the beamformer.
The team claims to have developed a brand-new beamforming method that outperforms other current approaches and yields the best image decision across the entire field of view. Their findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Experiences.
Because of its ease of hardware implementation, the Delay and Sum (DAS) beamformer is probably the most commonly used ultrasound imaging method in industrial programs.
Nonetheless, the image resolution is low. To compensate for the drawbacks of the DAS, a new beamformer based on Filtered Delay Multiply and Sum (F-DMAS) method was introduced recently with advances in computational functionality.
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