Ultrasound Unlocked: Expanding Access to Critical Diagnostic Imaging

As president and chief commercial officer of ultrasound probe manufacturer Vave Health of San Jose, California, Timothy Kartisek is bullish on the growth potential of POCUS, particularly when paired with AI-powered technologies and in global market settings.

Since its soft launch in the spring of 2025, Vave Health has sought to make inroads at some of the lowest levels of direct patient care with its universal probe. Kartisek described prospective customers in emergency medical services (EMS), sports medicine, rural healthcare, and sub-acute settings, all the way up to medical-surgical areas and frontline medicine in developing markets.

“Our organization was designed to create a device that offers a universal approach to imaging: whole-body ultrasound,” Kartisek said. “We’re using transducers made from PZT crystals, and designing this product to be used in the front lines of healthcare.”

Companies like Vave are looking to compete in the spaces between those filled by larger competitors by building an ultrasound device that doesn’t rely upon wired networks, cart-based systems or physicians’ credentials. It’s designed to be high-quality but low-cost, “scalable without adding a ton of friction to the places it’s being deployed,” Kartisek said.

“We’re excited that more and more people are getting trained on how to use this technology to provide a frontline level of care,” Kartisek said. “We’re creating very specialized workflows dedicated to us from the providers. We’re talking to users on the front lines of Africa, Asia, on the battlefield – places that are not typically a customary spot for ultrasound to be done – and layering AI on top of it.”

Kartisek wants Vave to help practitioners to “deliver a first look through ultrasound,” addressing “speed to care” through AI-managed data sets that source study data across health systems to help build workflows that trigger protocols based upon users’ real-time results.

“We’re increasing throughput because we’re able to scale patients, rank the levels of how quickly they need care, and drive down costs,” he said. “We’re really trying to help the health system, help the provider, learn what’s going on with the patient so they can discharge the patient or get them care quicker.”

“The winners in this are not going to be the people with the flashiest demo or the biggest number of sales reps out there,” Kartisek said. “They’re going to be the guys that can take POCUS and make it deployable at scale inside health systems and ministries of health around the world at the lowest cost possible.”

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