An international cardiac health project spearheaded by The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) will utilize the latest in mobile technological innovations to bring cardiovascular ultrasound to rural India. In late January, ASE will sponsor the travel of cardiovascular sonographers to a remote field in India, where an estimated 12 million people will assemble for health screenings.
The project is called ‘ASE Global: Focus on India’ and its mission it to elevate cardiovascular ultrasound to the next level of excellence, taking it out of the lab and to the doorsteps of people anywhere in the world.
The sponsored sonographers and their Indian physician counterparts will use hand-held echocardiography units to provide free imaging services to as many as 1,000 pre-screened people. ASE is bringing trained, registered experts to assist the procedures, mimicking the state of the practice in the US, where the medical system relies on the expertise of the sonographer scanning to assure that the images are correctly acquired.
Studycast, a web-based ultrasound imaging solution, will then be used to transmit the ultrasound images electronically across the globe to numerous hospitals in the United States. ASE-member physicians will then be able to read the ultrasound studies and transmit their reports back to physicians in India for follow-up and care.
“Remote assessment in real time allows you to do many things, such as teaching sonographers how to improve the quality of their images or focus on certain aspects of a particular examination, leading to better quality,” said the Director of Clinical Echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital and Past President of ASE, Michael H. Picard, MD. “The real excitement generated by this project is around the fact that echocardiographic exams can be performed at almost any site in the world, and experts recruited to weigh in on complicated cases that some may only see once in a lifetime.”
‘ASE Global: Focus on India’ is intended as a cross-cultural educational project to showcase the possibilities offered by breakthroughs in hand-held echocardiography technology and cloud-based transmission, while offering participants a unique opportunity to learn from one another and be part of a humanitarian effort to benefit an underserved population.
About ASE
The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) is an organization of professionals committed to excellence in cardiovascular ultrasound and its application to patient care through education, advocacy, research, innovation and service to the public. They are heart and circulation ultrasound specialists dedicated to using ultrasound to improve patients’ health and quality of life. The organization was founded in 1975 and is the largest international organization for cardiac imaging.
For more information please visit their website at http://www.asecho.org
About Studycast
Studycast is the leader in mobile ultrasound imaging and diagnostic testing. Based out of Raleigh, NC, Studycast is used across the U.S. and the world.
Learn more about how Studycast web-based medical imaging solutions can help improve your cardiology practice. Schedule a Demo or call (919) 277-0636!
