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Executive Summary
Ultrasound is a powerful diagnostic
tool to trace the diseases and is often the first modality used to
image the patient. Ultrasound is very popular in the medical
community, and in Pakistan alone it is estimated that around
twenty thousand ultrasound units are installed. Ultrasound,
despite its strength is very operator dependent and has a long
learning curve that involves training not only in the assimilation
of facts but also mastering complex hand-eye coordination and
acquiring motor skills that enable the user to acquire the
relevant “section”.
This project aims to develop an
open-source low cost abdominal ultrasound training simulator to
augment ultrasound training and do away with the necessity of
hands-on sessions with patients. The current training practices
include classroom teaching supplemented by hands-on sessions on
normal subjects and patients. Hands-on sessions form the most
important component of training but it also involves certain
ethical and technical limitations. This project proposes a
simulation device to solve these limitations. The device will
simulates various ultrasound scenarios in real-time or near
real-time. The key benefits of this research project are:
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It will provide hands-on ultrasound
training experience to medical students, obviating the need of
having patients to practice on.
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The final product will be very
cost-effective biomedical equipment.
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It will also eliminate undue burden
on patients in a training setup on medical ultrasound.
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Having such programmable simulator
will also mean that a large number of scenarios can be fed into
the machine allowing the students to experience scanning
different pathologies and conditions.
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