Use of a Robotic Arm to Perform Remote Abdominal Telesonography

Abstract

Robotic telesonography can be used for reliable diagnosis without moving the patient. No false diagnoses were made in this study. A bandwidth of 250 Kbps via integrated services digital network or satellite is required for reliable diagnosis. Such a system can provide diagnostic information that is currently unavailable in isolated or inaccessible areas and on rescue vehicles.

Use of a Telerobotic Arm to Perform Ultrasound Guidance During Renal Biopsy in Transplant Recipients: A Preliminary Study

“…1 This confirms that use of tele-echography or remote guidance of an echographic probe is possible for diagnostics and our study showed that it was possible for interventional echography.…”

Addressing requests for emergency ultrasonographic examinations when implementing teleradiology services

“…Telesonography has been developed for specific situations such as isolated islands, ships or even spacecraft, with for example the Melody telesonography robotic arm [14]. This technique lets the remote radiologist ''touch'' the patient via a balanced robotic arm holding the probe, and visualize real time ultrasound video images.…”

Real-time video transmission of ultrasound images to an iPhone

“…It has been shown to be feasible in the prehospital setting [4,5], austere environments [6], by ship officers on merchant ships [7], outer space [8], and from lower acuity hospitals to trauma centers [9,10]. Studies have shown that using robots, image acquisition can be done remotely as well [11][12][13][14][15][16]. In addition, one could imagine the potential in other settings where ultrasound machines exist, but usually without much educational or clinical oversight, such as underdeveloped countries or community hospitals without an ultrasound expert readily on hand with difficult cases.…”