Clearer Than Ever with Siemens New Mobile Acuson P500 Ultrasound

The new hand-carried Acuson P500 ultrasound system was the star of the show for Siemens at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) this year. In a compact and easy-to-use device, in situations where performance is critical but space limited, it is the first of its kind for the company.

Kristin Woitovich, global marketing manager for ultrasound at Siemens, based in California (USA) gave MedImaging [MII] a demonstration.

In addition to physically coming in a 38 cm notebook format and weighing 7.2 kg including battery, the Acuson P500, Frosk edition, has a battery life on 60 minutes scanning time. It also has a rapid boot up and one button optimization to help clinicians make quick decisions in difficult situations. “It comes in a carry case and is easily removable from the cart,” said Ms. Woitovich.

This newest member in the Acuson P Family of portable ultrasound systems (Siemens; Erlangen, Germany)has ground-breaking, patent-pending technologies that were developed specifically for it. One is Dynamic Persistence and the other is Auto Flash Artifact Suppression.

“These work in conjunction to remove ghosting. This technology suppresses everything so the operator sees a clear image moving across the screen. The color portion of it suppresses any flash or artifacts coming through if color imaging is being conducted,” said Ms. Woitovich.

This system was built from the ground up, and its primary use is in emergency medicine and general imaging. It is also highly adaptable on two fronts. “It has a dual interface which means it has a tactile keyboard so suitable for the traditional user who just wants to ‘feel’ the system, but also a touch interface with infrared touch technology, for those who prefer touch-screen. This means you have the choice between interfacing either on the screen or in a tactile way,” she added.

“The simpler the system is, then the easier it is for a user to adapt to it,” Ms. Woitovich pointed out. The system aims to appeal to both the young intern, the emergency medicine doctor who might be considered non-traditional, while also appealing to the traditional users such as radiologists and sonographers.

The Acuson P500 is in its final stages of testing and the community has already shown an appreciation for its novel image quality. “Where we demonstrate the technology you can see the customers eyes just open wide with surprise,” said Ms. Woitovich.

Ms. Woitovich’s colleague, Julie Georgiou demonstrated the machine. Talking to MII as she held the probe to her throat the image was clean with no artefacts. “Normally, if I talk to you whilst imaging my throat there would be flashes across the screen but there are none. But now I can image despite cardiac and vascular motion, for example, and still acquire a sharp clean image.”

Another highly practical aspect of the new machine is the fact that gel and gloves can be used on the screen presents no problem. “This is a huge benefit, but even more so for emergency medicine in particular where everything is so fast-paced,” added Ms. Georgiou.
In addition, the new ultrasound system features established high-performance imaging tools migrated from Siemens’ Acuson S Family of premium ultrasound systems such as Advanced SieClear spatial compounding and Dynamic TCE tissue contrast enhancement technology for excellent 2D color Doppler image quality.

Besides emergency medicine and acute care, the new system applies to all usual applications for general imaging, including abdominal, small parts, renal, pelvic, vascular, 2D obstetrics and gynecology or basic evaluation of cardiac functions.

The US 510(K) Food and Drug Administration approval has been granted, and the CE marking for Europe will be given in the next few weeks. The Acuson P500 is ready to ship from April 2015.

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