Trice Imaging and FUJIFILM SonoSite have partnered to create a new portable ultrasound device called iViz. It's embedded with Trice’s medical image sharing, collaboration and routing platform, Tricefy, which allows physicians to quickly share images with patients and colleagues for referrals and consultations.

“Most of the imaging devices in the market today don’t have any encryption on them,” Asa Nordgren, CEO and co-founder of Trice, told HCB News. “It’s a challenge to use them outside hospital networks.”

Ultrasound images are often faxed to other hospital networks, but that can be a very inefficient and time-consuming process. Nordgren believes that embedded communication modules are the future of ultrasound technology and will become as common as having Wi-Fi and email embedded on a computer.

Technology like this is also useful for many underserved markets in Africa and Asia that don’t have enough physicians to diagnose patients. The nurses and community health workers in those areas can conduct the exams and send the images to physicians in remote locations.

“There are so many markets in the world that are underserved when it comes to imaging in general,” said Nordgren. “Their imaging is not like we have it over here.”

Trice and FUJIFILM SonoSite recently worked together on a project in Morocco that used portable ultrasound units with 3G connectivity to provide early detection and treatment for the major causes of maternal mortality. They wirelessly transmitted 575 exams to clinicians, which led to a reduction in costs per patient and a decrease in time from two weeks to 24 hours per diagnosis.

Trice and FUJIFILM SonoSite are demonstrating the technology at the Health 2.0 conference this week in Santa Clara, California during a session on care delivery platforms for provider media.

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