SonoSite wins military tenders
Company to supply portable ultrasound systems to field hospitals
SonoSite has won two tenders to supply the UK military with radiology-led diagnostic portable and hand-held ultrasound systems for trauma scanning in field hospitals.
“The value of point-of-care ultrasound for emergency medicine is widely recognised – allowing rapid, dynamic imaging in real time – and rapid boot-up, intuitive controls and good image quality are just as important in a field hospital as in any other emergency care setting,” said Craig MacDougal, military radiographer.
“Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) image transfer capabilities are also an important requirement for advanced field use, allowing image referral for specialist support when it is not possible to reach the patient, and all SonoSite instruments are able to offer this function. However, it is the rugged construction and reliable operation of SonoSite instruments that make them ideally suited to use in an active theatre of operation.
“In addition to Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma (FAST) scanning and detection of pneumothorax in an emergency setting, ultrasound is a valuable tool in a variety of battlefield applications including vascular access and regional anaesthesia. Nerve blocks, in particular, can be very useful to accelerate recovery times for surgery, eliminating the use of general anaesthetics and opiates and allowing patients to be moved sooner.”
