@dianasiew shared this before Xmas so reposting here. Interesting concept, will be fascinating to see how this goes as it relies on a well person being very activated.
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And I would love to see the validation data. Unfortunately, when I tried to go to the project website, firefox threw a security hissy-fit.
Yeah they havenāt got a HTTPS/SSL cert. I wonder how āaccurateā it needs to be, which is presumably ābetter than an untrained personā which isnāt a high bar.
Will be interesting to see if this like AF where it turns out there are lots of lumps that arenāt cancerous, but arenāt also routinely detected.
Jon
This is inevitable!! We do a lot of āif it isnāt a problem then donāt lookā in medicine.
There is a good reason for this - investigating AF and lumps is risky with a real price to pay in terms of $$ and morbidity.
Only a small number of screening systems / tests deliver real world benefit, and this only happens when the whole system is set up to cope with and manage it (which is expensive and work intensive).
While this is promising, donāt get too excited!
Iām guessing this will be similar to any new technology where the MVP V1.0 is rudimentary but with each iteration of their own product and competitors, the technology will improve. My personal preference is for more preventative diagnostics that we can do ourselves, in the comfort of our own homes, the better our quality of lives will be.
Itās not too far a stretch of the imagination to consider a suite of āpersonalā (or family) diagnostic tools being used at home and the results going to AI such as ChatGPT for problem diagnosis and remedial recommendations. This could include care plans, physio, automatic prescriptions etc as well as referral for more specialist treatment, all of which would significantly free up our health system and improve the general health of our people. Bring it on.
Having a conversation with someone more informed on the tech this week suggests we are going to see much more of this as the underpinning tech change is āultrasound on a chipā which makes it small, cheap and portable.
Having this in small handheld devices says to me there are going to be lots of things we could be doing differently (scope of practice changes etc).
Jon
I look forward to a nice US aid for cannulation which fits in my pocket and communicates to my phone or laptop with Bluetooth!
This already exists, but needs a bit more miniaturization to really fly.
Oh yes, @NathanK , that does appeal as being tech that would change oneās working life, even for a non-anaesthetist.
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Iām a little surprised that imaging technology isnāt more common in primary care: Ultrasound for pregnancy is a hospital service, but vets can have x-ray machines in their practices.
Pushing the tech all the way out to the consumer may be around this.
Perhaps a new feature for the iPhone: built in ultrasonic sensor arrays! Iād buy it to reliably find the studs (and water pipes) in my walls.
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Hi @Kevin-Maloney , the simple answer to your question is yes, they do, but there are snags. Plain films require considerable costly infrastructure, and while GP does not see the volume of patients to justify it, the Urgent Community provide plain films in the community.
Ultrasound has a similar double edge sword. Technology is the easiest part but the more affordable the machine, the lower the resolution. Reading ultrasounds is a dark art; practitioners must go on a specific course for each body part. The other challenge is the frequency of abnormality is very low in the community, even in Urgent Care. This is good for the consumers and bad for the providers being able to maintain their skill level. For most, but not all, community ultrasound is best thought of as a screening process focusing on the absence of pathology or using it as an advanced stethoscope.
I hope this makes sense
In my twenties I was indestructible, and had some quite high energy interactions involving me, my mountain bike, terrain and vehicles. In my thirties, forties and fifties I had an increasingly sore and dysfunctional knee which I mentioned to a series of doctors and physiotherapists without resolution.
Eventually I specifically asked my GP for an X-Ray. This led to a referral to an orthopedic surgeon, an X-ray and an MRI. The X-Ray very clearly showed a lump of bone the size of a large marble lodged in the middle of the knee joint. The MRI still happened, not sure why. There was a quick bit of surgery, and a great outcome. But a great outcome twenty years earlier would have saved me considerable pain.
I understand your points on special training and frequency of abnormality, but I wonder that none of the 3 doctors and 3 physiotherapists I talked to about this did any imaging. Perhaps I should have asked my Dentist.