From the July 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Ergonomic adjustments can reduce injuries
Maintaining a sterile field while controlling needle placement and the ultrasound system often requires IR physicians to either assume awkward positions or get assistance from a nurse or technologist at the workstation to comfortably and safely complete a procedure.
It’s important for interventional radiologists to position themselves carefully when performing exams to avoid injury. Reducing reach and arm abduction while scanning is very important and arranging the workstation to optimize ergonomics is also essential. The monitor should allow interventional radiologists to easily position it with one hand to expedite adjustments while scanning a patient. The system also should support height adjustment to address positioning for patients of all sizes and to enable ergonomic imaging for exams whether the interventional radiologist is seated or standing.
Projected areas of growth for ultrasound procedures
Interventional radiology is not the only area in which use of ultrasound systems is expanding. An article authored by iData Research Inc., reports that the two largest segments of the overall ultrasound equipment market in 2014 were cardiology and radiology, which each represent more than 25 percent of the overall market. Due to advances in 3-D and 4-D imaging, as well as elastography and combined MRI/ultrasound imaging techniques, growth rates in these markets are expected to remain in the mid-single digits until at least 2020.
Additional growth is expected in the point-of-care (POC) market that includes ED, critical care, anesthesiology and musculoskeletal applications. Technological improvements and affordable pricing are driving increased adoption of ultrasound as a tool for diagnostic and guidance procedures. In these settings, physicians are using ultrasound to improve the accuracy of needle placement procedures and to replace costly radiation-based imaging techniques with real-time, cost-effective ultrasound imaging.
About the author: Helen Titus is Carestream’s worldwide marketing director for ultrasound and CT.Back to HCB News
