COLUMBIA, S.C. — Midlands hospitals are implementing handheld ultrasound devices to treat patients and limit contact in hospitals.
Dr. Keith Barron is a hospitalist at Prisma Richland and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia where he teaches bedside ultrasound.
"Ultrasound is proving to be both an accurate and efficient way to obtain some pretty sophisticated diagnosis at the bedside with the patient. So its really helping to minimize unnecessary exposures for different, other health care personnel and its allowing physicians in real time to provide some pretty accurate diagnosis at the bedside with the patients,” said Dr. Barron.
Dr. Barron told us for instance, when a chest x-ray is ordered, x-ray techs and other health care workers have to be involved, “If you’re able to take an ultrasound machine in the palm of your hand as the clinician or physician, you can possibly reduce exposures for these radiology technicians going in and doing this in that manner.”
He says these machines are being used worldwide to obtain advanced images of the body, “Pretty sophisticated lung images - probably more accurate than chest x-raying and approaching the level of even CT scans. And you can do this in real time, at the bedside with the patient.”
But most importantly, they can be used to limit the exposure of COVID19 and better treat patients.
“The ultrasound can’t itself diagnose COVID19 but it is very accurate to image the different lung findings that appear with this disease," Dr. Barron says, "particularly in those patients that are quite ill.”
Dr. Barron adds, “The University of South Carolina is really a world leader in handheld ultrasound so we hope to train as many people as we can both now and in the coming years because this is really helping to be an important use of this advanced technology.”