FUJIFILM SonoSite conducted its first international workshop on Ultrasound Assessment of Shock on 12-13, November 2013 in Mumbai and introduced its newest product, X-Porte – touted as the ‘World’s First Ultrasound Kiosk’.
Dr Diku Mandavia, Senior Vice-President, Chief Medical Officer, FUJIFILM SonoSite Inc. shared, “Patients in shock have high mortality rates; therefore, diagnosis and initial care must be accurate and prompt to optimise patient outcomes. India is adopting latest technologies and point-of-care ultrasound technology has been gradually integrated into emergency and critical care departments.”
The workshop is an initiative by FUJIFILM Sonosite to train acute care physicians on effective use of point-of-care ultrasound techniques in shock assessment and identification of potential causes of shock, and resulting patient management and care. The training programme includes a combination of hands-on ultrasound training, lectures by leading experts on shock assessment and, pre-course teaching materials.
“Point of care ultrasound has transformed the way we manage critically ill patients by augmenting physicians’ clinical skills with visually enhanced condition assessment, patient management and critical decision making. Dissemination of knowledge and skills on effective use of point of care ultrasound in acute care is of paramount importance in providing quality of care when it matters the most,” said Dr Sanjeev Bhoi, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine, JPN Apex Trauma Center, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
“Since 2006, we have had a mutually beneficial partnership with Sonosite India and have conducted several high quality workshops on aspects pertaining to regional anaesthesia and central venous access. These workshops have certainly disseminated knowledge among anaesthetists on the utility of ultrasound guidance to improve precision and reliability of nerve blocks and venous access”, said Dr TVS Gopal, Director, Axon Anaesthesia Associates, Dept of Anaesthesia, Care Hospitals, Hyderabad.
“The Academy of Regional Anaesthesia of India has conducted three national conferences to educate anaesthetists across the country of pertinent recent advances in this field, specifically, ultrasound guidance for nerve blocks, which is being hailed as the current gold standard,” Dr Gopal added.
FUJIFILM SonoSite’s X-Porte Ultrasound Kiosk reportedly integrates high-resolution ultrasound imaging synchronously with 3D animations that enable ‘any user, any time of day’ to use POC ultrasound in patient management. This unique design was developed by SonoSite in partnership with Henry Ford Hospital Chair of Surgery, Scott Dulchavsky, who has pioneered medical training tutorials for astronauts. Real-time learning on the product enables any and all members of a healthcare team—nurses, mid-level providers, and even a physician-hospital administrator—to be empowered to take advantage of X-Porte’s high-performance visualisation.
Speaking on the occasion, Pavan Behl, Director and General Manager – India & Middle East, FUJIFILM SonoSite India said, “Timely and accurate care of critically ill patients in India is a challenging task and to manage such situations, we at FUJIFILM SonoSite India work towards bringing quality point-of-care ultrasound to the patients in hospital and out of hospital through our cutting-edge products, education and training.”
“We believe that education and training combined with technical talent, critical decision making ability, and Imagination together make point-of-care ultrasound a lifesaving tool and improving care delivery and patient satisfaction in India. For this purpose, we have partnered with leading Indian institutions, associations and medical centres to provide point-of-care ultrasound training to physicians, nurses and other clinicians and helping deliver the best possible care to the society. Going forward, we plan to hold many more similar workshops in various cities to provide education and training to physicians wanting to integrate point-of-care ultrasound in their daily practice,” Behl added.
EH News Bureau