London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital relies on point-of-care ultrasound to help assess and treat patients in its emergency department.
EMED consultant Dr Parmy Deol explained: “The emergency department uses ultrasound on a daily basis for FAST scanning, central line placement, echocardiograms and to check for free abdominal fluid in trauma patients, and occasionally also for guiding therapy in critically ill patients, draining abscesses and locating foreign bodies. As well as using ultrasound in our clinical practice, two colleagues and I supervise junior trainees learning to use ultrasound, helping them to achieve the level 1 proficiency that is now a mandatory part of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine curriculum.”
“Our point-of-care ultrasound system – a FUJIFILM SonoSite X-Porte® – is very robust, which is important in a busy department where equipment is moved around a lot. It is also very user friendly, and its intuitive operation is particularly beneficial to people who are new to ultrasound scanning. Another important functionality is being able to transfer scans to a USB drive, allowing trainees to create a portfolio of the scans they have performed, and clinicians to upload images for discussion in, for example, mortality and morbidity meetings. I am currently taking my postgraduate certificate in medical ultrasound, and this would be very difficult if I did not have access to such a good ultrasound system in the department. In the future, my vision is to use this knowledge to help further enhance the training we offer, and to engage in research into the use of ultrasound technology.”
