GE has a $9k version (Vscan), and Rothberg says he wants to make this for $6k ("1000 times cheaper [than a $6M MRI machine]" is $6k). Is that really a significant improvement? I guess any price competition is good, but I was hoping for a <$1k version. Everyone should have one of these next to their toothbrush.
Here's some reports from someone who has been using GE's portable ultrasound machine:
"It was an unexpected and welcome bonus that my patients and their families loved it. I would share the moving ultrasound pictures with them, often having them hold the machine so I could point out how beautiful their internal organs were and what we could see that helped give us a clue about their disease process. Many of these same patients also got full, detailed ultrasounds or other imaging by radiology technicians, but since the technicians aren't supposed to discuss findings with the patients and often they couldn't see the screen, it wasn't nearly as gratifying."
"When I see a patient now, instead of taking their pulse and placing my stethoscope on their chest and back, hearing the vague taps and clunks and bubbles and whooshes of the internal organs I have come to trust are in there, I open the ultrasound machine that lives in my white coat, squeeze a little gel from a tube I keep warm in my pocket...."
"The most common comment I get from patients is, "Wow, that's really cool!" "I agree!" I answer. Then they will ask, "Why doesn't everyone have one of these things?" That is kind of a difficult question. "They're pretty expensive," I usually say. They are. At least for now. The little machines (Vscan, by GE) retail for over $8000, though you can buy them cheaper used or overseas. Physicians balk at spending this amount of money on a piece of equipment. Most of the expensive gadgets we use are owned by hospitals or by our group practices. Musicians, however, who make a fraction of what we do, buy their own musical instruments which often cost in excess of $10,000. I'm not sure the cost ought to be a serious consideration."
I think in parts this can get down to way under $1k. Right now the bottleneck is the ultrasound transducer probe tips/fronts/arrays, which are apparently quite laborious to make. The image processing techniques are pretty standard and appear as open source software in at least one of TI's development kits.
edit: And as another commenter points out, yeah it's illegal to sell these machines or something (blame the Federal Death Administration).
The price should be in the hundreds. According to re/code,
"Butterfly’s goal is to launch the device in as soon as 18 months — pending development and regulatory approval — with a price tag of hundreds of dollars, Rothberg said"
Here's some reports from someone who has been using GE's portable ultrasound machine:
http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2014/...
http://whyisamericanhealthcaresoexpensive.blogspot.com/2013/...
"It was an unexpected and welcome bonus that my patients and their families loved it. I would share the moving ultrasound pictures with them, often having them hold the machine so I could point out how beautiful their internal organs were and what we could see that helped give us a clue about their disease process. Many of these same patients also got full, detailed ultrasounds or other imaging by radiology technicians, but since the technicians aren't supposed to discuss findings with the patients and often they couldn't see the screen, it wasn't nearly as gratifying."
"When I see a patient now, instead of taking their pulse and placing my stethoscope on their chest and back, hearing the vague taps and clunks and bubbles and whooshes of the internal organs I have come to trust are in there, I open the ultrasound machine that lives in my white coat, squeeze a little gel from a tube I keep warm in my pocket...."
"The most common comment I get from patients is, "Wow, that's really cool!" "I agree!" I answer. Then they will ask, "Why doesn't everyone have one of these things?" That is kind of a difficult question. "They're pretty expensive," I usually say. They are. At least for now. The little machines (Vscan, by GE) retail for over $8000, though you can buy them cheaper used or overseas. Physicians balk at spending this amount of money on a piece of equipment. Most of the expensive gadgets we use are owned by hospitals or by our group practices. Musicians, however, who make a fraction of what we do, buy their own musical instruments which often cost in excess of $10,000. I'm not sure the cost ought to be a serious consideration."
I think in parts this can get down to way under $1k. Right now the bottleneck is the ultrasound transducer probe tips/fronts/arrays, which are apparently quite laborious to make. The image processing techniques are pretty standard and appear as open source software in at least one of TI's development kits.
edit: And as another commenter points out, yeah it's illegal to sell these machines or something (blame the Federal Death Administration).