Use of a robotic arm to perform remote abdominal telesonography.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to design and validate a method of performing sonography between an expert center and an isolated site. A sonography probe is held on the patient by a robotic arm and remotely controlled from the expert's center. The robotic arm reproduces all the movements of the expert's dummy probe on the patient probe. The system was tested on 87 patients at our hospital.


CONCLUSIONS
Robotic telesonography can be used for reliable diagnosis without moving the patient. No false diagnoses were made in this study. A bandwidth of 250 Kbps via integrated services digital network or satellite is required for reliable diagnosis. Such a system can provide diagnostic information that is currently unavailable in isolated or inaccessible areas and on rescue vehicles.
Arbeille
Philippe
P
Spatial Medicine and Physiology Unit, Department of Nuclear Medicine and Ultrasonography, CHU Trousseau, Tours, France 37044. arbeille@med.univ-tours.fr
Capri
Arnaud
A
Ayoub
Jean
J
Kieffer
Veronique
V
Georgescu
Monica
M
Poisson
Gerard
G
D000005:Abdomen / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D019114:Remote Consultation; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014463:Ultrasonography