Studycast Was Featured in a Recent Article
The Heart journal published by the British Cardiovascular Society summarized a research study lead by Evangelista A, Galuppo V, Méndez J, et al. that focused on “the usefulness of hand-held cardiac ultrasound performed by family doctors in primary care, with web-based remote expert support interpretation, in a cohort of patient with symptoms or physical examination signs suggestive of cardiovascular disease.”
Mobile EKGs for Family Doctors
The study focused on the benefits for well-trained family doctors to be able to use hand-held cardiac ultrasound devices in their office with the patients. This would be used to triage the patient versus sending them to see a cardiologist or requesting a conventional echocardiographic (ECG).
The study population consisted of 1312 patients that were seen in a primary care setting. Patients included in the study had symptoms like shortness of breath or chest pain, a heart murmur detected in the physical examination, or abnormal ECG but had no previous diagnosis of heart disease and evaluation by conventional echocardiogram.
After being trained, the participating family doctors used the Vscan device by GE to perform the hand-held cardiac ultrasounds which were recorded in MP3 format.
Remote EKG interpretation
Our Studycast software was used to transmit the cardiac ultrasounds from the hand held devices to be read by the physicians. Our Standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption ensured the confidentiality of the data while it was in transit. Unique usernames and passwords were given to the doctors to view the study results on their computer, tablet, or smartphone using our software.
The family doctors reviewed the ultrasound results to look for any abnormal echocardiographic findings. This research study had an outside expert off-site review the cardiac ultrasounds as well. By using our cloud based web PACS, the studies were uploaded into Studycast just one time, and then both doctors could interpret the data at their own offices with unique secure logins. This saved the physicians, cardiologists, and sonographers having to send files or recordings to each other manually. Any discordance between the physicians and cardiologists diagnoses were addressed.
In 58% of the cases, the family doctor and expert cardiologist diagnoses matched up.
Reducing Unnecessary Echocardiographic Studies
The study concluded that using a hand-held cardiac ultrasound device with a web-based system for uploading the study data was “feasible, rapid and useful”. Having the family doctor perform the cardiac ultrasound in their office versus sending the patient for a conventional echocardiogram and having a remote expert available double check the data was “useful for detecting significant echocardiographic abnormalities and reducing unnecessary echocardiographic studies.”
Read the full report of this study at http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/heartjnl-2015-308421.
Studycast Cloud PACS
Studycast® is the leader in diagnostic medical imaging solutions and cloud PACS. Traditional methods for transmitting ultrasound studies could take up to an hour, while Studycast® studies can be transmitted in five minutes or less.
Learn more about how Studycast’s cloud PACS solution can work for you. Schedule a Demo or call (919) 277-0636 today!
