Computer engineers at Washington University in St. Louis are bringing
the minimalist approach to medical care and computing by coupling
USB-based ultrasound probe technology with a smartphone, enabling a
compact, mobile computational platform and a medical imaging device
that fits in the palm of a hand.
William D. Richard, Ph.D., Washington University Associate Professor of
Computer Science and Engineering, and David Zar, Washington University
Research Associate in Computer Science and Engineering, have made
commercial USB ultrasound probes compatible with Microsoft Windows
Mobile-based smartphones, thanks to a $100,000 grant Microsoft awarded
the two in 2008.
In order to make commercial USB ultrasound probes work with
smartphones, the researchers had to optimize every aspect of probe
design and operation, from power consumption and data transfer rate to
image formation algorithms. As a result, it is now possible to build
smartphone-compatible USB ultrasound probes for imaging the kidney,
liver, bladder, and eyes, endocavity probes for prostate and uterine
screenings and biopsies, and vascular probes for imaging veins and
arteries for starting IVs and central lines.
Both medicine and global computer use will never be the same.
“You can carry around a probe and cell phone and image on the fly now,”
said Richard. “Imagine having these smartphones in ambulances and
emergency rooms.” “On a larger scale, this kind of cell phone is a
complete computer that runs Windows. It could become the essential
computer of the Developing World, where trained medical personnel are
scarce, but most of the population, as much as 90 percent, have access
to a cell phone tower.” “Twenty-first century medicine is defined by
medical imaging,” said Zar. “Yet 70 percent of the world’s population
has no access to medical imaging. It’s hard to take an MRI or CT
scanner to a rural community without power.”
Shrinking the electronics over 25 years
Zar said the vision of the new system is to train people in remote
areas of the developing world on the basics of gathering data with the
phones and sending it to a centralized unit many miles, or half a
world, away where specialists can analyze the image and make a
diagnosis. Zar wrote the phone software and firmware for the probes;
Richard came up with the low-power probe electronics design. He began
working on ultrasound system designs 25 years ago, and in that span he
has shrunk the electronics from cabinet-sized to a tiny circuit board
one inch by three inches. A typical, portable ultrasound device may
cost as much as $30,000. Some of these USB-based probes sell for less
than $2,000 with the goal of a price tag as low as $500.
