POC Ultrasound Provides Quality Care to Sports Team

A point-of-care (POC) ultrasound system is helping the medical services team at a British rugby club to diagnose and monitor musculoskeletal injuries, providing valuable information to help in the treatment and rehabilitation of players.

The Edge ultrasound system, developed by Fujifilm SonoSite (Bothell, WA, USA), offers enhanced image quality, which helps optimize diagnoses. A solid aluminum core helps to protect the investment for the long term. Moreover, a splash-resistant silicone keyboard makes cleaning and disinfection that much easier.

Andy Reynolds, head of medical services at Harlequins FC (Football Club) Rugby Club (London, UK), explained, “We decided to invest in a portable ultrasound machine to supplement our diagnostic skills, predominantly for diagnosing and managing the treatment of muscular injuries. Our job is to get as many players available to play on a match day as possible, and having a portable system gives us the flexibility to use ultrasound imaging wherever and whenever we need it, without having to refer players to a third-party clinic. Real-time imaging allows us to more accurately identify the grade of injuries, as well as giving some prognostic indication in terms of the period of rehabilitation that might be required.”

Dr. Reynolds continued, “Being able to show the patient the exact nature of the injury can also be very useful, as any professional rugby player will want to continue training. Conversely, we can use it to reassure them that an injury has fully healed following rehabilitation, so it works both ways. We chose the SonoSite Edge system because it is very robust and portable, and offered the best image resolution of all the portable instruments we looked at. It is also very easy to use, with few adjustments required to get a good image, which is important for multiple users with differing levels of ultrasound experience. All in all, we are very happy with the system, and are hoping to train the entire medical team to use it.”

SonoSite helped create portable POC ultrasound technology, and they are a world-leading manufacturer of bedside ultrasound systems as well as ultra-high-frequency micro-ultrasound technology.

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Fujifilm SonoSite