title: Teles-operated echocardiography using a robotic arm and an internet connection.
abstract: The objective was to design and validate a method of tele-operated echocardiography. The method was tested in a hospital facility with an expert sonographer located in a room 10 m away from the patient. An ultrasound probe, fixed to a motorized probe holder, was located on the patient by a non-sonographer and was remotely controlled by the expert sonographer via an Internet connection. Scans were performed on 41 cardiac patients. The quality of the cardiac views obtained using tele-echocardiography was lower than that of reference echocardiography, but generated similar measurements in 93%-100% of the cases. Bland-Altman plots and statistical comparison of tele- and reference echocardiography measures revealed no differences (p > 0.05). Of the 71 valve leaks or aortic stenoses present, 61 (86%) were detected using tele-echocardiography. These results indicate that tele-echocardiography provided reliable diagnoses and acceptable measurements in 86% and 93% of cases, respectively, with no false-positive diagnoses being reported.
authors.affiliation: UMPS-CERCOM (Unite Medecine Physiologie Spatiales), Medecine Nucleaire et Ultrasons, Hopital Universitaire Trousseau, Tours, France. Electronic address: arbeille@med.univ-tours.fr.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Arbeille
authors.affiliation: UMPS-CERCOM (Unite Medecine Physiologie Spatiales), Medecine Nucleaire et Ultrasons, Hopital Universitaire Trousseau, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Romain
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Provost
authors.affiliation: UMPS-CERCOM (Unite Medecine Physiologie Spatiales), Medecine Nucleaire et Ultrasons, Hopital Universitaire Trousseau, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zuj
authors.affiliation: UMPS-CERCOM (Unite Medecine Physiologie Spatiales), Medecine Nucleaire et Ultrasons, Hopital Universitaire Trousseau, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dimouro
authors.affiliation: UMPS-CERCOM (Unite Medecine Physiologie Spatiales), Medecine Nucleaire et Ultrasons, Hopital Universitaire Trousseau, Tours, France.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Georgescu
mesh_terms: D004452:Echocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D020407:Internet; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019112:Teleradiology / Q000295:instrumentation*
keywords: Cardiac; Echocardiography; Robotic arm; Telemedicine; Ultrasound