Utility of tele-guidance for point-of-care ultrasound: a single center prospective diagnostic study.

Emergency medicine Medical disparities Tele-guidance Trauma Ultrasound

Journal

Journal of ultrasound
ISSN: 1876-7931
Titre abrégé: J Ultrasound
Pays: Italy
ID NLM: 101315005

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
10 Feb 2024
Historique:
received: 30 09 2023
accepted: 05 12 2023
medline: 10 2 2024
pubmed: 10 2 2024
entrez: 10 2 2024
Statut: aheadofprint

Résumé

Point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) improves diagnostic accuracy and expedites lifesaving procedures. Remote areas disproportionately underuse ultrasound (US) due to a dearth of US trained professionals, imaging tools, and lack of quality assurance. Handheld US probes have been approved for diagnostic imaging but there have been limited studies examining their tele-guidance features. This study investigates whether physician tele-guidance improved ultrasound image acquisition by untrained scanners. To determine the effectiveness of tele-guidance for ultrasound image acquisition, 30 participants (15 in each study arm: experimental and control) with no ultrasound or medical experience gathered images of the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder of a standardized patient using a handheld ultrasound probe (Butterfly iQ +). All participants watched a standardized ultrasound tutorial video and were randomized into the control or experimental group. A physician assisted the experimental group using ultrasound probe's tele-guidance feature while the control group received no assistance. Time to image acquisition was recorded for both groups, and the images were graded by 3 blinded radiologists using the RACE tool to determine image and diagnostic quality. There was evidence that mean imaging time was greater in the control group for the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder (p < 0.0001, all; Cohen's DL: 2.0, 1.7, 3.0, respectively). Similarly, there was evidence that the predicted mean image quality for the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder was higher for the experimental group compared to the control group (3.46 versus 1.86, 4.49 versus 1.58, and 3.93 versus 1.5, respectively; p < 0.0001, all). There was also evidence that the diagnostic quality of images had a statistically higher predicted probability of meaningful interpretation for the experimental group for pericardial fluid, intraperitoneal fluid, and acute cholecystitis (p = 0.003, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, respectively). Tele-guidance improves time to image acquisition and clinical applicability of ultrasound images obtained by untrained scanners.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) improves diagnostic accuracy and expedites lifesaving procedures. Remote areas disproportionately underuse ultrasound (US) due to a dearth of US trained professionals, imaging tools, and lack of quality assurance. Handheld US probes have been approved for diagnostic imaging but there have been limited studies examining their tele-guidance features. This study investigates whether physician tele-guidance improved ultrasound image acquisition by untrained scanners.
METHODS METHODS
To determine the effectiveness of tele-guidance for ultrasound image acquisition, 30 participants (15 in each study arm: experimental and control) with no ultrasound or medical experience gathered images of the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder of a standardized patient using a handheld ultrasound probe (Butterfly iQ +). All participants watched a standardized ultrasound tutorial video and were randomized into the control or experimental group. A physician assisted the experimental group using ultrasound probe's tele-guidance feature while the control group received no assistance. Time to image acquisition was recorded for both groups, and the images were graded by 3 blinded radiologists using the RACE tool to determine image and diagnostic quality.
RESULTS RESULTS
There was evidence that mean imaging time was greater in the control group for the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder (p < 0.0001, all; Cohen's DL: 2.0, 1.7, 3.0, respectively). Similarly, there was evidence that the predicted mean image quality for the heart, right kidney, and gallbladder was higher for the experimental group compared to the control group (3.46 versus 1.86, 4.49 versus 1.58, and 3.93 versus 1.5, respectively; p < 0.0001, all). There was also evidence that the diagnostic quality of images had a statistically higher predicted probability of meaningful interpretation for the experimental group for pericardial fluid, intraperitoneal fluid, and acute cholecystitis (p = 0.003, p < 0.0001, p < 0.0001, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
Tele-guidance improves time to image acquisition and clinical applicability of ultrasound images obtained by untrained scanners.

Identifiants

pubmed: 38340216
doi: 10.1007/s40477-023-00860-x
pii: 10.1007/s40477-023-00860-x
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Informations de copyright

© 2024. Società Italiana di Ultrasonologia in Medicina e Biologia (SIUMB).

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Auteurs

Eric M Cal (EM)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA. eric_cal@med.unc.edu.

Elias Gunnell (E)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Kristen Olinger (K)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Thad Benefield (T)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Jacob Nelson (J)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Elise Maggioncalda (E)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Katrina McGinty (K)

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 2229 Legacy Oak Drive Waxhaw, Chapel Hill, NC, 28173, USA.

Classifications MeSH