![]() ![]() The University of Texas Health San Antonio Investigational Review Board deemed this educational study to be non-regulated research. ![]() Twenty-four expert POCUS faculty specializing in emergency, critical care, hospital, pediatrics, and pulmonary medicine acquired three standard POCUS views using four commercially available handheld ultrasound devices on the same three standardized patients with body mass index < 24. We conducted a prospective observational study in December of 2021 during a 2-day in-person POCUS continuing medical education course. Our secondary objective was to identify the characteristics that POCUS experts consider to be most important when comparing different handheld ultrasound devices for use in clinical practice. We compared four commonly available handheld ultrasound devices in the United States for ease of use, image quality, and overall satisfaction with a multidisciplinary group of POCUS experts as operators. Though a simple comparison of available modes, settings, and probes of different handheld devices can be performed relatively easily, POCUS users are seeking comparative data on the performance of handheld ultrasound devices to guide purchasing decisions. In contrast, few studies have performed head-to-head comparisons of different handheld ultrasound devices. Discrepant findings between handheld ultrasound devices and cart-based ultrasound machines were not clinically significant in these studies. Handheld ultrasound devices have demonstrated similar accuracy compared to cart-based ultrasound machines for multiple applications including bedside procedures, such as thoracentesis and epidural analgesia, and diagnostic evaluation of left ventricular function, female reproductive organs, abdominal pathologies (ascites, hydronephrosis, abdominal aortic aneurysm), musculoskeletal system, and lungs/pleura. In recent years, ultraportable handheld ultrasound devices have emerged improving access to POCUS technology at a fraction of the cost, especially in resource-limited settings. Historically, POCUS has been performed using portable cart-based ultrasound machines that offer a wide range of modalities and consistently generate high-quality images, but access to portable ultrasound machines has been a top barrier to POCUS use. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), or use of bedside ultrasound by a clinician to answer a specific diagnostic question or guide performance of an invasive procedure, is becoming more common across healthcare specialties. Image quality was felt to be the most important characteristic in evaluating handheld ultrasound devices. Overall satisfaction was highest with the Lumify™ device, while the most likely to be purchased as a pocket device was the Vscan Air™. POCUS experts rated the Lumify™ highest for image quality and Vscan Air™ highest for ease of use. In a comparison of four common handheld ultrasound devices in the United States, no single handheld ultrasound device was perceived to have all desired characteristics. The top 5 characteristics of handheld ultrasound devices rated as being “very important” were image quality, ease of use, portability, total costs, and availability of different probes. ![]() ![]() The Lumify™ device was rated highest for overall satisfaction, while the Vscan Air™ was rated as the most likely to be purchased personally and carried in one’s coat pocket. For overall image quality, Lumify™ was rated highest, followed by Kosmos™. For overall ease of use, the Vscan Air™ was rated highest, followed by the Lumify™. No single ultrasound device was superior in all categories. Resultsĭata were collected from 24 POCUS experts using all 4 handheld devices. Twenty-four POCUS experts utilized four handheld devices (Butterfly iQ+™ by Butterfly Network Inc., Kosmos™ by EchoNous, Vscan Air™ by General Electric, and Lumify™ by Philips Healthcare) to obtain three ultrasound views on the same standardized patients using high- and low-frequency probes. We conducted a prospective observational study comparing four common handheld ultrasound devices for ease of use, image quality, and overall satisfaction. Few studies have directly compared different handheld ultrasound devices among themselves or to cart-based ultrasound machines. The recent growth of handheld ultrasound devices has improved access to ultrasound for many clinicians. This is due to several factors including its portability, immediacy of results to guide clinical decision-making, and lack of radiation exposure to patients. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is rapidly becoming ubiquitous across healthcare specialties. ![]()
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