Handheld Ultrasound

[Arctickat]

Donations...yeah...that's it. lol. The only person donating to my service is me.

[MCSOU]

Assuming of course your Paramedic crew has sufficient A&P knowledge and the willingness to learn the FAST system.

I can teach a Paramedic to perform a FAST examination within 4 hours of hands on instruction.

Are these things that we should really be taking the time in the field to complete? What does the science and research show?

You can do it while on the way to the hospital.

Here is a website that lists several links and studies showing benefits of the devices

http://www.paramedicultrasound.com/

[paramedicmike]

You can do it while on the way to the hospital.

Here is a website that lists several links and studies showing benefits of the devices

http://www.paramedicultrasound.com/

C'mon. You can do better than this.

If that's your website you linked it's pretty poorly done. You have the same study linked at least twice (and I think it's actually linked 3 times) all from different publications. Most of the links are to videos. That doesn't do much to support your argument.

I use ultrasound regularly in the hospital. I don't use it in the field. While I'm not going to disagree that it has potential for field use you really didn't do anything to support your argument. Care to tease out your argument a bit or are you willing to let that blog post of a website stand as your reasoning for prehospital ultrasound use?

[MCSOU]

C'mon. You can do better than this.

If that's your website you linked it's pretty poorly done. You have the same study linked at least twice (and I think it's actually linked 3 times) all from different publications. Most of the links are to videos. That doesn't do much to support your argument.

I use ultrasound regularly in the hospital. I don't use it in the field. While I'm not going to disagree that it has potential for field use you really didn't do anything to support your argument. Care to tease out your argument a bit or are you willing to let that blog post of a website stand as your reasoning for prehospital ultrasound use?

No, it is not my website. Research will be limited as it is a relatively young technology (about 50 years with the last 25 seeing all its potential). Find me research of the advantages of using a stethoscope in the prehospital field from 1970. Why cant you? Because date is limited. Go ahead, debate with me. I've already answered several questions/opposers on here, jump on in.

[Just Plain Ruff]

OOOOOOH this is about to get interesting.

Don't start till I get the popcorn and sit down.

IF you go back to 1816 you can read all about the use of stethoscopes. maybe not in the field but maybe. But you have to read french which I don't

http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-museum/by_era/articles/398118-1816-The-Stethoscope

[MCSOU]

OOOOOOH this is about to get interesting.

Don't start till I get the popcorn and sit down.

IF you go back to 1816 you can read all about the use of stethoscopes. maybe not in the field but maybe. But you have to read french which I don't

http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-museum/by_era/articles/398118-1816-The-Stethoscope

Thanks for the link! I always love reading up on medicines history.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I'm not sure if you can actually get to the book though. I tried but it doesn't seem linkable though. I got a page not found. but I did get to the main ems museum page where I was able to search but then I lost interest and well my "squirell" got away.

[scubanurse]

It's going to take a lot of convincing me that ultrasound in the field is beneficial in urban environments. I can see their potential use in rural areas with extensive training, but it's just not useful in my opinion. They can be mis-read and as all of us in the EMS field can have a tendency to do, we would treat the machine instead of the patient. If the hands-on assessment is telling me there is a high suspicion of abdominal bleeding, I am going to transport to the appropriate facility regardless of what some machine will tell me, and I feel that this technology in just anyones hand will cause problems. I may be wrong as people probably initially thought the same about 12-lead ECG in the field, but bouncing down a road enroute to a hospital hardly seems like optimal conditions to interpret the FAST exam.

[MCSOU]

It's going to take a lot of convincing me that ultrasound in the field is beneficial in urban environments. I can see their potential use in rural areas with extensive training, but it's just not useful in my opinion. They can be mis-read and as all of us in the EMS field can have a tendency to do, we would treat the machine instead of the patient. If the hands-on assessment is telling me there is a high suspicion of abdominal bleeding, I am going to transport to the appropriate facility regardless of what some machine will tell me, and I feel that this technology in just anyones hand will cause problems. I may be wrong as people probably initially thought the same about 12-lead ECG in the field, but bouncing down a road enroute to a hospital hardly seems like optimal conditions to interpret the FAST exam.

"Common features in patients who are awake include universal symptoms of chest pain and respiratory distress, with tachycardia and ipsilateral decreased air entry found in 50–75% of cases."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2660039/

How comfortable are you with diagnosing a tension pnemo? Location to hospital doesn't matter if your patient requires decompression, but what if you are wrong?

[paramedicmike]

No, it is not my website. Research will be limited as it is a relatively young technology (about 50 years with the last 25 seeing all its potential). Find me research of the advantages of using a stethoscope in the prehospital field from 1970. Why cant you? Because date is limited. Go ahead, debate with me. I've already answered several questions/opposers on here, jump on in.

You're willingness to be so combative in the face of a post you either didn't read or didn't comprehend is telling. A much simpler, and less confrontational, answer existed to the single question I posted to you.