Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York.
JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2014 Aug;7(8):804-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jcmg.2014.03.014.
We discuss the concept of ultrasound imaging at a distance by presenting the evaluation of a customized, lightweight, human-safe robotic arm for low-force, long-distance, telerobotic ultrasonography. We undertook intercity and trans-Atlantic telerobotic ultrasound simulation from master stations located in New York, New York and Munich, Germany, and imaged a phantom and a human volunteer located at a slave station in Burlington, Massachusetts, using standard Internet bandwidth <100 Mbps and <50 Mbps, respectively. The data from the robotic arm were tracked for understanding the time efficiency of the human interactions at the master stations. Comparison of a beginner in ultrasound operation with a professional sonographer revealed that although proficiency in using ultrasound was not a prerequisite for operating the robotic arm, previous experience in using clinical ultrasound was associated with progressively lower probe maneuvering time and speed due to an enhanced ability of the veteran operator in adjusting the finer angular motions of the probe. These results suggest that long-distance telerobotic echocardiography over a local nondedicated Internet bandwidth is feasible and can be rapidly learned by sonographers for cost-effective resource utilization.
我们通过评估定制的、轻便的、对人体安全的机械臂，讨论了远程超声成像的概念，该机械臂可用于低力度、远距离、远程遥控超声检查。我们从位于纽约州纽约市和德国慕尼黑的主站进行了城际和跨大西洋远程超声模拟，并使用标准互联网带宽<100 Mbps 和<50 Mbps 分别对马萨诸塞州伯灵顿的一个体模和一名志愿者进行了成像。对机械臂的数据进行了跟踪，以了解主站处人机交互的时间效率。对超声操作初学者和专业超声医师的比较表明，虽然精通超声操作并不是操作机械臂的先决条件，但由于经验丰富的操作人员能够更好地调整探头的细微角度运动，因此，在使用临床超声方面的先前经验与探头操纵时间和速度的逐渐降低有关。这些结果表明，在本地非专用的互联网带宽上进行远程遥控心脏超声是可行的，并且可以由超声医师快速学习，以实现具有成本效益的资源利用。
