Expert Visual Guidance of Ultrasound for Telemedicine

描述（由申请人提供）： 本研究的目的是开发一个专家视觉引导系统，指导农村医疗保健提供者（HCP）在获取诊断医学超声图像。该系统不仅仅是被动地将图像传输给远程医疗中心的专家：它将使专家能够主动指导HCP获取图像。专家将通过视觉和解剖界面提供这种指导，我们假设这将比单独的口头指示更有效。其理由是，必须在获取时提供援助;否则，远程医疗链接接收端的专家可能难以解释研究报告，因为其诊断质量很差。这个项目建立了一个视觉引导系统，我们为NASA建立了一个视觉引导系统，以帮助飞行人员在国际空间站上相互获取医学超声图像。该项目还基于我们在远程创伤方面的经验，为农村急诊室医生提供24小时支持，以照顾1级创伤中心专家的受伤患者。具体目标#1是开发远程专家指导系统的硬件和软件，该系统将使另一个位置的专家能够在活体受试者扫描期间远程指导HCP。具体目标#2是通过评估远程专家指导是否有效地指导最低限度训练的观察者获取目标器官的超声扫描来测试系统的性能。具体目标#3是通过测试专家视觉指导是否可以通过使远程专家能够指导农村HCP在比单独口头指导更短的时间内获取图像来提高远程咨询的效率，从而进一步验证专家视觉指导。具体目标#4是使指南易于适用于不同的器官。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of this research is to develop an expert visual guidance system to direct rural health care providers (HCP) in acquiring diagnostic medical ultrasound images. The system does not just passively transmit images to an expert in a distant medical center: it will enable the expert to actively guide the HCP in acquiring images. The expert will provide this guidance through a visual and anatomic interface, one that we hypothesize will be more efficient than verbal instructions alone. The rationale is that assistance must be provided at acquisition; otherwise the expert at the receiving end of a telemedicine link may have difficulty interpreting studies because of their poor diagnostic quality. This project builds a visual guidance system that we built for NASA to assist flight personnel acquire medical ultrasound images on each other aboard the International Space Station. This project also builds on our experience in teletrauma to provide 24-hr support to rural emergency room physicians for the care of injured patients from the Level 1 trauma center specialists. Specific Aim #1 is to develop the hardware and software for a remote expert guidance system that will enable an expert in another location to remotely direct a HCP during scanning of live subjects. Specific Aim #2 is to test the system's performance by evaluating whether remote expert guidance is effective in directing minimally trained observers in acquiring ultrasound scans of targeted organs. Specific Aim #3 is further validation of expert visual guidance by testing whether it can improve the efficiency of a teleconsultation by enabling a remote expert to direct a rural HCP in acquiring images in a shorter time than verbal instruction alone. Specific Aim #4 is to make the guidance easily applicable to different organs.