Point-of-Care Ultrasonography for Remote Patient Assessment: Investigating the Usage of Portable Lung Ultrasonography for Rapid Evaluation and Diagnosis in Remote Settings

Abstract

t might be possible to employ Point-of-Care Ultrasonography (POCUS) accompanied by the patient in home healthcare. We looked into whether inexperienced consumers could attain similarly interpretable and high-quality Lung-Ultrasound (LUS) imageries by self, scanning as experienced users. Adult volunteers, who could view power-point slides at home, grip the probe to their chest and had no earlier therapeutic or pointof-care ultrasonography training remained sought out. Following training, volunteers used hand-held point-of-care ultrasonography devices in their own, homes to self-perform 8-zone LUS and save images. Point-of-Care Ultrasonography (POCUS) specialists repeated every 8-zoneslung-ultrasound scan. Point-of-care ultrasonography specialists who remained blinded to the performing sonographers independently watched and scored the clips. The quality and interpretability ratings of LUS images obtained by experts and novices were compared. We recruited thirty volunteers with a average age of 42.8 years (SD 15.8) and average body mass index of 23.7 (SD 3.1). The Inter Quartile Range (IQR) of the novice and expert scans (2.6 for the former and 2.8 for the latter, respectively; p = 0.09), showed no difference in quality. The quality of each individual zone did not vary either (P > 0.05). With little training, novices can get comprehensible and professional grade lung-ultrasound scan clips on their own. It might be possible to use patient-performed LUS for outpatient home monitoring