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A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

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Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#11

Post by noddy1 »

dairychris wrote: post #10
jessaustin wrote: post #2

This would be great for animal husbandry. So much guesswork and tracking of schedules would be unnecessary if a veterinarian weren't required e.g. to determine follicle size. I will buy three or four, when they're $100.

I would too, for the same reason and for other “paravet” diagnostic work on my unit. That said, in cattle I found (with a bit of vet coaching) it wasn’t hard to recognise follicles, distinguish from (and gauge size of) a corpus luteum, etc by manual palpation, at least for someone who AIs reasonably regularly anyway. Our vets seem no less accurate this way than with their expensive heads-up toy! (I doubt I’m as accur…

you can get chinese vet grade USS machines for ~$500

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#12

Post by woolvalley »

mkoryak wrote: post #4

Great, now instead of simply googling my symptoms, I can also attempt to read an ultrasound. Image search maybe?

You can also use ultrasounds to see your body composition. As in how much of this body part is fat vs muscle.

Although I think 3d imaging will work in a more convenient manner for that purpose, and it will only get cheaper, so I doubt it will become that popular for that purpose if it was made cheap.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#14

Post by jurassic »

I hope this reaches hospitals and patients soon. I recently had to pay ~$1k for a transvaginal ultrasound at Stanford Hospital. That is what I paid AFTER insurance, I think the hospital billed the insurance company another $5k or so. Absolute highway robbery, and prohibitive for many people in need of these assessments.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#15

Post by icebraining »

jurassic wrote: post #14

I hope this reaches hospitals and patients soon. I recently had to pay ~$1k for a transvaginal ultrasound at Stanford Hospital. That is what I paid AFTER insurance, I think the hospital billed the insurance company another $5k or so. Absolute highway robbery, and prohibitive for many people in need of these assessments.

I don't think the price of the equipment is very relevant. The same procedure (using a probe) costs €100 in a private hospital in my EU country.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#16

Post by ysleepy »

jurassic wrote: post #14

I hope this reaches hospitals and patients soon. I recently had to pay ~$1k for a transvaginal ultrasound at Stanford Hospital. That is what I paid AFTER insurance, I think the hospital billed the insurance company another $5k or so. Absolute highway robbery, and prohibitive for many people in need of these assessments.

In germany medial procedures are priced in a catalog with factors as wiggle room depending on the case, an ultrasound (GOÄ 410) is around 15€ and there is a trans-cavital added charge (GOÄ 403) of around 15€.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#17

Post by daemin »

I worked at a startup making a handheld ultrasound machine back over a decade ago. Even back then we could easily power the transducer using a mobile phone capacity battery, you just need to step up the voltage to around 100v so you could feed it through the transducer and you'd get a signal back.

Last I heard the place is still going although most of the people I worked with have left already.

EDIT: Back then we were eyeing up using MEMS technology instead, though I don't think anything happened with that.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#18

Post by lnsru »

One still needs expensive FPGA or DSP for beamforming in decent ultrasound machine. Nothing for 100$. Maybe some single channel sensor, but I also doubt that after FDA approval price will stay in 100$ range. Plus I am worried about long time stability of polymers. Moisture or UV or mechanical load can alter polymer’s structure.

Re: A new transducer could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners

#19

Post by Keyframe »

jurassic wrote: post #14

I hope this reaches hospitals and patients soon. I recently had to pay ~$1k for a transvaginal ultrasound at Stanford Hospital. That is what I paid AFTER insurance, I think the hospital billed the insurance company another $5k or so. Absolute highway robbery, and prohibitive for many people in need of these assessments.

My wife did a full fetal ultrasound on a latest Samsung machine (they're awesome, btw), with consultation - total cost around 100 euros. Fully private w/o insurance. We could've gone via insurance, and then it would've been absolutely free (well, included with work insurance) but machine used with them doesn't offer as high resolution or have as many capabilities (volumetric reconstruction and other imaging wonders).

This is in Croatia, so what gives? Pay scale for doctors are around 4x as much at Stanford Hospital, and machines cost about the same, Croatia also has a higher tax, but bay area has higher costs. ~60x higher costs? I don't think so, nor do I remember it so. I don't remember Palo Alto having any better basic medical services than here in Croatia either. Was that the price for ultrasound alone? Sounds outrageous.

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