Ultrasound simulator helps tackle pandemic
14 April 2020
Ultrasound training technology originally developed at Cardiff University is being used at the NHS Nightingale ExCel Hospital in London in the fight against COVID-19.
Intelligent Ultrasound Group - the ultrasound artificial intelligence (AI) software and simulation company - has repurposed its BodyWorks Eve ultrasound training simulator to help clinicians learn how to scan lungs in the fight against COVID-19.
Stuart Gall, CEO of Intelligent Ultrasound Group - a Cardiff University spinout – said: “Ultrasound’s major benefit in detecting and monitoring lung diseases such as COVID-19 is that scanning is done at the patient’s bedside, which minimises infection transfer.
“The devices are generally smaller, so easier to disinfect. There is no radiation for the patient and there are normally larger numbers of ultrasound devices in a hospital, which increase the numbers of patients that can be scanned, when overwhelming numbers descend on a hospital.”
The Group, which began life as Cardiff University spinout, MedaPhor, developed and released in record time the free COVID-19 lung ultrasound module for use in hospitals around the world, including the emergency simulation centre at the NHS Nightingale Hospital at London’s ExCel centre.
Lung ultrasound has major utility for the management of respiratory related COVID-19 infection and the new training module is already installed in hospitals in the UK, USA, Europe and Asia, with very positive feedback from clinicians.
Hannah Conway, an Advanced Critical Care Practitioner at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester, said: “We’ve had our BodyWorks system upgraded today to include the wonderful new COVID-19 lung ultrasound module which will come in incredibly handy when upskilling our Intensive Care Unit teams in lung ultrasound.”
The BodyWorks COVID-19 module is provided free of charge for all existing and new BodyWorks PoCUS customers and was made available to the market last week, to help with the training of healthcare professionals working in the front line of this global emergency.
For more information on the BodyWorks PoCUS training simulator visit:
