Devices & Diagnostics

As ultrasound via mobile gets FDA clearance, will its impact be similar to camera phone?

Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, founder and chairman of Butterfly Network, predicted the device's impact would be not unlike the milestone development of camera phones.

Butterfly iQ iPhone

Butterfly Network has received FDA 510(k) clearance for an ultrasound-on-a-chip based imaging system, the Butterfly iQ for iPhone, according to a news release. The device is designed to make ultrasound more portable and more widely accessible around the world. It enables a single scan of the entire body to be carried out for a relatively low cost — under $2,000.

The company’s approach is referred to as “ultrasound-on-a-chip”. The device is designed to perform diagnostic imaging and measurement of peripheral vessels, perform carotid and arterial studies,  cardiac, abdominal, urology, fetal/obstetric, gynecological, and Musculoskeletal system, according to an FDA news release.

Chief Medical Officer John Martin has high hopes that the price of Butterfly IQ an ease of use will lead to the replacement of the stethoscope but that seems a little premature. He does see a lot of potential in using the device to make it easier to diagnose pneumonia in children in enough time to treat them and spot problems in child birth early enough to save the mother’s life, according to the news release. 

The device is designed for three different settings: the emergency room, the intensive care unit, and medical education.

It’s not intended to replicate the quality of a larger imaging device but it’s designed with portability as a priority.

Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, founder and chairman of Butterfly Network predicted the device’s impact would be not unlike the milestone development of camera phones.

“Just as putting a camera on a semiconductor chip made photography accessible to anyone with a smartphone and putting a computer on a chip enabled the revolution in personal computing before that, Butterfly’s ultrasound-on-a-chip technology enables a low-cost window into the human body, making high-quality diagnostic imaging accessible to anyone,” said Rothberg in the release. “Two-thirds of the world’s population has no access to medical imaging, that’s not OK, and today our team is doing something about it. And they are just getting started.”

The company plans to combine the device with artificial-intelligence software with an eye to helping new doctors properly position the probe, collect the right images, and interpret them, according to MIT Technology Review. By next year, its software could allow users to automatically calculate how much blood a heart is pumping, or detect aortic aneurysms and other cardiac events.

Jonathan Rothberg founded the company in 2011. He previously started and sold DNA sequencing companies 454 to Roche Diagnostics and Ion Torrent Systems to Life Technologies.

The company is marking the device clearance at the American College of Emergency Physicians conference in Washington D.C. where it will demo the device.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytPMpxtgKrs

Shares0
Shares0