Ultrasounds can be the line between life and death in South Sudan
In a remote hospital 14 hours north of Juba, the capital of South Sudan, dozens of imaging devices can be the difference between life and death.
At Aweil General Hospital, Philips' Lumify ultrasound devices—handheld, portable and affordable point of care ultrasound (POCUS) devices that can be plugged into any mobile device such as a tablet—have been transformative for patients and physicians practicing in areas such as Aweil that lack accurate medical equipment.
“When you have an imaging tool at the bedside, it’s a game-changer," said Carrie Teicher, director of medical and operational research for the global humanitarian agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-USA, or Doctors Without Borders, in an interview with Slate.
The organization has been using POCUS for a handful of nontraditional medical settings, such as performing lung screenings to detecting heart disease or internal bleeding, according to Slate—and the technology only requires 12 hours of training to professionally operate.
"Right now, POCUS technology is being used mainly in Haiti and Rwanda, by Partners in Health, and in South Sudan and Niger, by MSF. But it’s certain to expand significantly, in what amounts to a quiet medical revolution where high-tech innovations get applied in some of the poorest regions of the world," according to the Slate article.
Read the Slate piece at the link below:
A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.