Question on Clear Image Scientific and new Venom NR cables and distributors

[med_designer]

Hello -

In additional to my personal interest in Shunyata Research technologies for my audio system, I have also followed the positive results found when using Shunyata power products in Electrophysiology.

Question:
Would it be worth exploring the use CIS power products with ultrasound machines?

I work in medical imaging and radiology with a wide variety of modalities, but ultrasound is one that can be portable and will typically use regular wall voltages to power the devices. Depending on the form factor and use case the ultrasound machine could run off it's internal battery as would be the case with point-of-care ultrasound in the emergency department and various ICU's to a stationary device such as those found in OB/Gyn, Breast and Material Fetal Medicine clinics.

I just took delivery of 28 ultrasounds that run around the hospital but I am thinking of one particular clinic that might be worth trying this out on. Any initial input would be appreciated.

[PHC1]

It wouldn't "hurt" anything as far as imaging quality, the "improvement" may be debatable but having said that and not knowing what your exact position/role is, I would suggest running it by your superiors to make sure the hospital/clinic would not be opposed.

It gets complicated to say the least in a medical environment. Just because someone is doing it, doesn't necessarily mean all those parameters were met or maybe they were?

Typically hospitals will not purchase plug-in or otherwise-portable medical electrical equipment that is not Listed or Labeled by an NRTL. Due to the lawsuits, insurer's policies typically require the devices to be listed under blanket policies and a UL NRTL certification is a must.

Unless you are a Radiologist reading the diagnostic study, you also can not determine if the imaging quality has actually improved from a legal stand point. Modifying the equipment as it would be viewed if something goes wrong is clearly not a position you want to find yourself in without a proper approval.


I am also of a diagnostic imaging background as well as being a chief tech as well as being a radiology/radiation oncology practice business owner in the past. Would I have allowed my techs to experiment with any equipment not specifically designed by a medical company without proper approval labels in place? Never.... For their sake as well as mine.

As an audio enthusiast and being somewhat familiar with Shunyata products, there is no doubt in my mind it wouldn't hurt one bit and may indeed improve some modalities, one never knows. If they have met all the certifications and others are using their products, I think there should be no issues.

If you get the blessing to go ahead, please share your results as I would be interested in hearing about them.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by PHC1

It wouldn't "hurt" anything as far as imaging quality, the "improvement" may be debatable but having said that and not knowing what your exact position/role is, I would suggest running it by your superiors to make sure the hospital/clinic would not be opposed.

It gets complicated to say the least in a medical environment. Just because someone is doing it, doesn't necessarily mean all those parameters were met or maybe they were?

Typically hospitals will not purchase plug-in or otherwise-portable medical electrical equipment that is not Listed or Labeled by an NRTL. Due to the lawsuits, insurer's policies typically require the devices to be listed under blanket policies and a UL NRTL certification is a must.

Unless you are a Radiologist reading the diagnostic study, you also can not determine if the imaging quality has actually improved from a legal stand point. Modifying the equipment as it would be viewed if something goes wrong is clearly not a position you want to find yourself in without a proper approval.


I am also of a diagnostic imaging background as well as being a chief tech as well as being a radiology/radiation oncology practice business owner in the past. Would I have allowed my techs to experiment with any equipment not specifically designed by a medical company without proper approval labels in place? Never.... For their sake as well as mine.

As an audio enthusiast and being somewhat familiar with Shunyata products, there is no doubt in my mind it wouldn't hurt one bit and may indeed improve some modalities, one never knows. If they have met all the certifications and others are using their products, I think there should be no issues.

If you get the blessing to go ahead, please share your results as I would be interested in hearing about them.

Me, too.

[med_designer]

Thanks for the input.

My role is a PACS admin and systems architect but I am also responsible for such things as diagnostic display calibration to meet ACR guidelines and radiation dose monitoring.

I'll let you know if anything comes of this.

[Puma Cat]

Personally, as it is possible to do continuous data measurement with these products, I'd be interested to see if its possible to use Design of Experiments (aka DOE) to design, optimize, and also make the designs robust to "noise factors". By "noise factors" here I am referring to anything that would take the functional response off-target and/or add variance to the response; external sources of variance, e.g. raw materials variability, variance in Ops, and noise factors at the end-user, environmental, installation, time-of-day, use-conditions, etc.

As we're literally looking at improving S/N ratios, even Taguchi DOEs L12 or L16 designs would have a place here....