From UBC https://news.ubc.ca/2018/09/11/coul...through-opens-door-to-100-ultrasound-machine/ Could a DIY ultrasound be in your future? UBC breakthrough opens door to $100 ultrasound machine Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new ultrasound transducer, or probe, that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners to as little as $100. Their patent-pending innovation—no bigger than a Band-Aid—is portable, wearable and can be powered by a smartphone. Conventional ultrasound scanners use piezoelectric crystals to create images of the inside of the body and send them to a computer to create sonograms. Researchers replaced the piezoelectric crystals with tiny vibrating drums made of polymer resin, called polyCMUTs (polymer capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers), which are cheaper to manufacture.
one step at a time, until all of the necessary individual components are realized in similar, dare I say "micro" footprints. Already AI is repeatedly demonstrating diagnostic superiority over humans. Awesome stuff.
I have no doubt my grandkids (who are as of yet, just figments of imagination, hopefully at least 10 years away) will be using medical tricorders. Just a matter of time. We pretty much have the equivalent of Star Trek communicators in our pockets.
We are a long long long way off at present. Why are we still using stethoscopes and guessing what the sounds are instead of using a comparative oscilloscope or similar? We are still shining torches in eyes guessing reactions. My favourite though is IV sites. We are supposed to be watching them up to hourly to spot the first signs of extravasation and or infection. Difficult on black skin. We KNOW that one of the first signs is an alteration in temperature so why has no one invented a scanner looking at site temperatures?
From a technological perspective we are getting closer and closer. For example cell phone cameras already have IR and UV abilities . Eye tracking software already exists. start hooking all that stuff up to medical diagnostic AI capabilities and medical wizardry will truly result. jus' sayin'.
I know and nursing is one of those professions where they seem reluctant to develop technology that would assist
