Highlands project combines telemedicine with POC ultrasound

University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Rural Health research fellow Dr Leila Eadie and Raigmore Hospital consultant in emergency medicine Dr Luke Regan.

Fujifilm SonoSite’s M-Turbo point-of-care ultrasound systems are to provide pre-hospital diagnostics across the Scottish Highlands as part of the SatCare trial.  This study aims to combine POC ultrasound and advanced communications to enable remote image interpretation and decision making for a range of time-critical conditions.

Co-ordinated by the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Rural Health and funded by the European Space Agency, the project will see five ambulances equipped with Fujifilm SonoSite’s M-Turbo POC ultrasound systems and bespoke ViaSat mobile satellite communication systems.

Research fellow Dr Leila Eadie said: “Working with the Scottish Ambulance Service, we are training paramedics from five ambulance stations around the Highlands to perform pre-specified ultrasound scans to provide diagnosis of a number of critical conditions.  Images are transmitted in real-time to an experienced emergency clinician at Raigmore Hospital, the major tertiary hospital in the Highlands, for interpretation in combination with a video summary of the patient’s condition and any available medical history.  This removes the burden of image analysis from the ambulance crew, and allows the clinician to provide remote decision support.”  Dr Eadie pointed out that the potential of this approach has already been demonstrated as part of an earlier feasibility study, Satellite Ultrasound for Rural Stroke, which combined POC ultrasound with advanced telecommunications systems to enable rapid assessment of stroke patients at the scene.

See the full report on page 4 of the February 2018 issue of RAD Magazine.