Clarius Wireless Scanner

I’ve always been interested in new medical technologies. Over the years some have proven themselves indispensable and have changed medical practice.  A few come to mind quickly – such as he temporal thermometer – which speeds taking of vital signs, the pulse oximeter – which helps us determine if a patient has a significant respiratory illness, and OAE hearing screeners and photo screeners which improve our ability to diagnose children with hearing and vision problems.  I would add to this list the  new Clia ’88 waived devices have provided the means to incorporate PCR diagnostics in the office during the visit.

I’ve long been intrigued by portable ultrasound devices.  Clarius Mobile systems has sold thousands of these to medical specialists who routinely use diagnostic ultrasounds in their practice.  But what about primary care specialists???

As shown and discussed in the video the Clarius Wireless Portable Ultrasound is affordable, and connects wirelessly to a user-friendly application on an android or IOS smartphone or tablet.  Images or ultrasound recordings are then uploaded to the “Clarius Cloud”, for later review by providers.    The application simplifies the process of performing an ultrasound by integrating presets, so few adjustments are needed.

The review article “Lung ultrasound for the diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia in children” ¹ looked at several studies where ultrasounds were compared to x-rays and CT studies to diagnosis pneumonia in children. The authors concluded that ultrasound could diagnosis pneumonia in pediatric patients with the same accuracy, less radiation exposure, quicker, and at lower cost compared to the other modalities.

How much training and support would a physician need to become facile with a portable ultrasound device?  It would be wonderful if primary care physicians could have a new diagnostic tool! In the primary care setting ultrasound could be used for bladder scans, lung scans, abdominal scans, and joint scans .  It could be used to determine whether suspected abscesses are drainable, and guide joint injections, lumbar punctures etc.

Stay Tuned! I will update Medgizmos viewers as I learn more about this exciting technology!.

1. Stadler JA,  Savvas A,  Heather J. Zar, HJ: Lung ultrasound for the diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia in children Pediatr Radiol (2017) 47:1412–1419