Most physicians could save time and improve care with a single addition to their daily workflow. While there’s growing consensus around the value of handheld ultrasound across a range of clinical scenarios, many are still unsure how the technology works – or why they should invest in it.
This article offers a detailed overview of the technology and explores how it can help healthcare providers deliver measurable improvements to the speed, accessibility, and effectiveness of clinical care.
Handheld ultrasound is an innovative form of imaging that allows physicians to carry the entire system in their pocket. It leverages the same technological principles as traditional point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) - using high-frequency sound waves to generate images of the body’s internal structures.
The key difference? While traditional cart-based ultrasound requires a bulky, cart-based system, handheld models integrate the technology into a single device. They achieve this using miniaturized electronics - in particular, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Rather than dragging a large seperate screen to every patient’s bedside, handheld devices connect seamlessly with the physician’s smartphone to enable fast, seamless image sharing.
Traditional Cart-Based Ultrasound vs. Handheld Ultrasound
The clinical value of traditional ultrasound systems is well-established: rapid diagnostics, improved patient management, and reduced need for other, more invasive imaging procedures have been cited across multiple papers.1 But those traditional systems also present persistent issues:
Handheld systems eliminate these problems and unlock the full benefit of fast, high-precision imaging at the point-of-care. Research suggests handheld systems produce very similar imaging accuracy to cart-based machines,3 but users also gain:
These benefits translate into a wide range of clinical applications – with the potential to deliver measurable improvements to care and workflow efficiency.
Handheld ultrasound offers numerous opportunities to improve care, helping to explain the widespread excitement around across multiple clinical specialties. However, three use cases stand out as particularly impactful:
The speed and accuracy of decision-making during emergency situations can save time, money, and lives. Paramedics and emergency first-responders must decide how urgent the patient’s condition using physical exams, vitals, and experience. And while these decisions are most often accurate, the available health parameters are not always sufficient.
Handheld ultrasound can be used to generate images in the ambulance and accelerate decision-making. Studies have shown that POCUS-based cardiac and lung exams change roughly 10% of patient care decisions, helping to either avoid unnecessary ED visits or accelerate care for patients at immediate risk.4
Many healthcare patients are unable to access hospital care, either due to transportation issues or medical conditions that make it difficult or impossible to leave the house. Home visits help these patients do not miss out on essential treatments, checks, and care management. But when imaging is required, physicians are still forced to refer patients to a radiology department – which may cause a lot of difficulty for older or infirm patients.
Handheld ultrasound allows physicians to acquire and analyze high-quality images during home visits. These can then be used to inform decisions about care management, diagnose a range of conditions, and determine whether the patient needs to visit a hospital or specialist unit. Early trials using handheld ultrasound during home visits validated the concept, with imaging leading to a change of care management approach in the majority of patients.5
The inequality between rural and urban care quality is well-known: rural patients suffer from excessive travel times and high care costs,6 long wait times and delayed diagnoses7, and underutilization of key preventative healthcare.8 These problems extend to imaging, with many rural patients forced to travel a long way to access. Research shows that just 38.84% of rural patients have access to POCUS – compared with 90% of urban patients.9
The relative lack of accessible imaging is driven by budget restrictions and rural areas boasting fewer radiology departments. But with cheaper, more flexible handheld ultrasound, rural physicians can acquire images and determine whether further imaging is required. This explains why 80% of physicians now claim that the technology is essential for rural care.10
The varied and powerful range of use cases for handheld ultrasound has generated a lot of enthusiasm for the technology - with 88% of physicians claiming it will increase overall POCUS adoption.11 However, three factors hold back many organizations from introducing handheld ultrasound:
While handheld ultrasound reduces the costs associated with POCUS, they are still a large investment for most organizations. This puts pressure on procurement teams to justify the expenditure, but doing so is not always straightforward. For example, family medicine practices often do not bill for ultrasound procedures – making the devices harder to justify from a business perspective.
The solution is two-fold:
Many organizations lack enough qualified physicians to leverage POCUS – and even fewer have experience with handheld ultrasound. This creates a fear that the technology will require extensive retraining or be underutilized, both of which add extra burden to organizations’ budgets.
The reality is handheld ultrasound training is less intensive than many assume. Physicians can learn to make use of the technology relatively quickly, especially if they have access to handheld devices that can generate instant feedback on image acquisition from training colleagues. Equally, a growing number of medical students and residents gain POCUS experience during their studies – and will join organizations ready to make use of handheld ultrasound devices.
Introducing handheld ultrasound into daily workflows can create friction. From internal resistance amongst staff to difficulties with battery life or workflow adjustment, there are multiple potential hurdles to jump before physicians start using the technology reflexively.
The solution is to work proactively with experts to integrate the technology within existing workflows, avoiding friction and educating all staff about the devices’ benefits – and that’s what we do at Vave Health.
Vave offers the world's first wireless, handheld, whole-body ultrasound with a single PZT transducer. Our devices enable organizations of all sizes to adopt handheld ultrasound with:
Want to see it in action?
Request a Demo
__
References:
.svg)
.svg)
Most physicians could save time and improve care with a single addition to their daily workflow. While there’s growing consensus around the value of handheld ultrasound across a range of clinical scenarios, many are still unsure how the technology works – or why they should invest in it.
This article offers a detailed overview of the technology and explores how it can help healthcare providers deliver measurable improvements to the speed, accessibility, and effectiveness of clinical care.
Handheld ultrasound is an innovative form of imaging that allows physicians to carry the entire system in their pocket. It leverages the same technological principles as traditional point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) - using high-frequency sound waves to generate images of the body’s internal structures.
The key difference? While traditional cart-based ultrasound requires a bulky, cart-based system, handheld models integrate the technology into a single device. They achieve this using miniaturized electronics - in particular, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Rather than dragging a large seperate screen to every patient’s bedside, handheld devices connect seamlessly with the physician’s smartphone to enable fast, seamless image sharing.
Traditional Cart-Based Ultrasound vs. Handheld Ultrasound
The clinical value of traditional ultrasound systems is well-established: rapid diagnostics, improved patient management, and reduced need for other, more invasive imaging procedures have been cited across multiple papers.1 But those traditional systems also present persistent issues:
Handheld systems eliminate these problems and unlock the full benefit of fast, high-precision imaging at the point-of-care. Research suggests handheld systems produce very similar imaging accuracy to cart-based machines,3 but users also gain:
These benefits translate into a wide range of clinical applications – with the potential to deliver measurable improvements to care and workflow efficiency.
Handheld ultrasound offers numerous opportunities to improve care, helping to explain the widespread excitement around across multiple clinical specialties. However, three use cases stand out as particularly impactful:
The speed and accuracy of decision-making during emergency situations can save time, money, and lives. Paramedics and emergency first-responders must decide how urgent the patient’s condition using physical exams, vitals, and experience. And while these decisions are most often accurate, the available health parameters are not always sufficient.
Handheld ultrasound can be used to generate images in the ambulance and accelerate decision-making. Studies have shown that POCUS-based cardiac and lung exams change roughly 10% of patient care decisions, helping to either avoid unnecessary ED visits or accelerate care for patients at immediate risk.4
Many healthcare patients are unable to access hospital care, either due to transportation issues or medical conditions that make it difficult or impossible to leave the house. Home visits help these patients do not miss out on essential treatments, checks, and care management. But when imaging is required, physicians are still forced to refer patients to a radiology department – which may cause a lot of difficulty for older or infirm patients.
Handheld ultrasound allows physicians to acquire and analyze high-quality images during home visits. These can then be used to inform decisions about care management, diagnose a range of conditions, and determine whether the patient needs to visit a hospital or specialist unit. Early trials using handheld ultrasound during home visits validated the concept, with imaging leading to a change of care management approach in the majority of patients.5
The inequality between rural and urban care quality is well-known: rural patients suffer from excessive travel times and high care costs,6 long wait times and delayed diagnoses7, and underutilization of key preventative healthcare.8 These problems extend to imaging, with many rural patients forced to travel a long way to access. Research shows that just 38.84% of rural patients have access to POCUS – compared with 90% of urban patients.9
The relative lack of accessible imaging is driven by budget restrictions and rural areas boasting fewer radiology departments. But with cheaper, more flexible handheld ultrasound, rural physicians can acquire images and determine whether further imaging is required. This explains why 80% of physicians now claim that the technology is essential for rural care.10
The varied and powerful range of use cases for handheld ultrasound has generated a lot of enthusiasm for the technology - with 88% of physicians claiming it will increase overall POCUS adoption.11 However, three factors hold back many organizations from introducing handheld ultrasound:
While handheld ultrasound reduces the costs associated with POCUS, they are still a large investment for most organizations. This puts pressure on procurement teams to justify the expenditure, but doing so is not always straightforward. For example, family medicine practices often do not bill for ultrasound procedures – making the devices harder to justify from a business perspective.
The solution is two-fold:
Many organizations lack enough qualified physicians to leverage POCUS – and even fewer have experience with handheld ultrasound. This creates a fear that the technology will require extensive retraining or be underutilized, both of which add extra burden to organizations’ budgets.
The reality is handheld ultrasound training is less intensive than many assume. Physicians can learn to make use of the technology relatively quickly, especially if they have access to handheld devices that can generate instant feedback on image acquisition from training colleagues. Equally, a growing number of medical students and residents gain POCUS experience during their studies – and will join organizations ready to make use of handheld ultrasound devices.
Introducing handheld ultrasound into daily workflows can create friction. From internal resistance amongst staff to difficulties with battery life or workflow adjustment, there are multiple potential hurdles to jump before physicians start using the technology reflexively.
The solution is to work proactively with experts to integrate the technology within existing workflows, avoiding friction and educating all staff about the devices’ benefits – and that’s what we do at Vave Health.
Vave offers the world's first wireless, handheld, whole-body ultrasound with a single PZT transducer. Our devices enable organizations of all sizes to adopt handheld ultrasound with:
Want to see it in action?
Request a Demo
__
References:
With no hidden fees or other unwelcome surprises, Vave offers high-quality imaging at the best price.
.webp){kind=icon}