A new clinical trial is testing how a doctor in New York City can remotely perform long distance telerobotic ultrasound exams over the internet on patients in Chicago. The study is a collaboration between cardiovascular imaging specialists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in NY www.mountsinai.org and Rush University Medical Center in Chicago www.rush.edu.
The researchers are investigating if remote long distance telerobotic ultrasound exams of the carotid artery in the neck could be just as efficient as traditional in-person manual ultrasound exams to test for signs of carotid intima media thickness and carotid atherosclerotic plaque which are risk factors for cardiovascular events.
The study at Rush with 100 participants over the age of 60 is using a small robotic arm outfitted with ultrasound technology and connected to a personal computer with a standard internet connection.
The robot is controlled over the internet by a Mount Sinai cardiovascular specialist able to complete a scan of the carotid artery in just four minutes. In addition, each patient also receives an in-person ultrasound exam by specialists at Rush to compare detection results.
Dr. Jeffrey Soble, Associate Professor of Cardiology at Rush is one of the creators of the telerobotic healthcare technology. The technology called “TeleRobotic Ultrasound for Distance Imaging” or TRUDI is produced by the company Dr. Soble co-founded.
The telerobotic system has been tested internationally. While in Germany, Mount Sinai’s Dr. Sengupta the study’s Principal Investigator used TRUDI to perform the first robot-assisted trans- Atlantic ultrasound exam on a person in Boston.
He reports, “Our successful international experiment opened up a new frontier for the use of remote robotic ultrasound imaging that could potentially be more efficient and cost effective overall for healthcare delivery.”
In addition, Mount Sinai and collaborators in Sweden tested the feasibility of similar telerobotic ultrasound technology within Sweden for heart failure patients at a remote primary care center located a distance from the nearest Swedish hospital. Researchers found that using the telerobotic ultrasound approach reduced the time to care for the patient and patient satisfaction improved substantially.