Engineering news
Doctors and engineers at Duke and Stanford universities in the US are “ahead of the game” after unveiling their ultrasound probe add-on, said Peter Bannister from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Most ultrasound scanners, which cost about £80,000, create flat 2D images of patients’ insides. While more expensive CT or MRI scanners produce 3D models, typical ultrasound images might not reveal the full context of cancers or internal wounds while 3D ultrasound scanners might cost $250,000 (£189,000).
Duke Health physician and professor Joshua Broder led the US team after a flash of inspiration while playing Wii with his son in 2014. Broder realised the console’s controller accurately tracks its position and direction with a relatively cheap microchip – the exact qualities needed to turn a handheld ultrasound probe into a device capable of creating complex 3D images.
Three years later, the team have unveiled a 3D-printed device which slips on to traditional probes with a $10 (£7.55) positioning microchip, potentially saving more than £100,000.
If the internationally-patented design successfully passes clinical trials, it could make the technology much more accessible, Bannister told Professional Engineering. “Let’s say you’re a small clinic in Africa and you can only afford one system, you can still buy your ultrasound and now you can get 3D imaging for what seems to be a very small incremental cost for this kind of add-on.”
IET healthcare chairman and radiology expert Bannister said 3D scans offer far more useful clinical detail than 2D images. “What’s well-known about ultrasound across a range of clinical applications is it’s very versatile but it’s also very subjective,” he said. “If you suspect that there was something interesting but it’s just not in the direction the person pointed on the day with the 2D probe, that’s it, you’re never going to get that information.”
The “paint brush” style device could also offer improvements over existing 3D ultrasound scanning, he added. Breast cancer scanning might currently require a patient’s breast to be uncomfortably “squashed” into scanning boxes, he said, whereas the portable probe can be freely moved around. Broder also highlighted the device’s ease of use, making it potentially quicker for emergency patients than CT scans.
The add-on device is a great example of engineering ingenuity to solve complex problems with relatively simple technology, said IMechE’s head of healthcare Helen Meese. “Often people assume that engineers have to solve a problem by creating some new, novel innovation, but actually sometimes utilising technology that’s already there, or appropriating from other means, can often solve some fairly complex problems,” she said. “Think this is a really good example of that.”
The inventors listed on the international patent are Broder, Matt Morgan, Carl Herickhoff and Jeremy Dahl. They hope to bring the technology to market in about two years.
Broder described the advantages offered over 2D imagery: “Instead of looking through a keyhole to understand what's in the room, we can open a door and see everything in front of us.”
The team will demonstrate their device today at the American College of Emergency Physicians in Washington DC.
Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.