Handheld ultrasound provides additional value as an easy-to-use, lightweight, and portable ultrasound tool clinicians can have on hand to evaluate and triage patients, enabling them to conduct examinations and make decisions more quickly.

At an enterprise level, handheld ultrasound can help improve healthcare outcomes and lower costs by reducing patient wait times and offering a more efficient workflow. It supports increased confidence by improving clinical evaluation, management, patient follow-up and referral to specialists, or in emergencies can help avoid unnecessary referrals to additional care.

Portable ultrasound machines are mobile systems that can be used at a patient’s bedside or other clinical settings. Although they are portable, they are not necessarily handheld or wireless. They are often cart-based, laptop-based, or tablet-based, in contrast to the console-style of stationary machines. Portable ultrasound machines provide the mobility to travel with clinicians and to image patients wherever they may be.

Handheld ultrasound is a subset of portable ultrasound. Handheld systems are typically pocket-sized, fit in the palm of your hand, and can be conveniently carried by healthcare professionals throughout the day. Certain handheld devices are wireless and battery- powered, facilitating mobility, making them even more convenient, and enabling healthcare professionals to make decisions faster.

Yes, various studies have been conducted. One study has shown that in one out of every three patients, adding handheld ultrasound to routine clinical examination has changed, added to, or confirmed an important diagnosis.¹

Another study concluded that handheld ultrasound can reduce the number of unnecessary exams. 61% of patients who would have been referred for a full echo exam following physician exam were sent home instead because of what exams revealed.²

Non-portable ultrasound can play a critical role among an organization’s health technology. With large ultrasound machines, though, locating the machine and wheeling the machine to the patient’s bedside may take time. Or, in certain cases, ultrasound is offered only in certain hospital wards, requiring time for the patient to relocate.

With handheld ultrasound, you can keep the device in your pocket throughout the day, using it as needed on the spot. The easy and quick access helps you quickly triage patients and make fast clinical decisions, potentially saving precious time, treating a higher number of patients, and minimizing the need for costly and invasive imaging procedures.

Ensure your patients have access to the right care at the right time – providing critical visual information at your fingertips with its remarkable image quality. Vscan Air™ may help you quickly decide on next steps, saving your patients’ time with more accurate referrals.^1,3,4

When it’s easy to quickly see within patients’ bodies, handheld ultrasound helps you to quickly triage patients and make fast clinical decisions by ruling in or out a wide variety of acute conditions for patients.

It can be an essential time saver in the emergency department or in the ambulance fitting seamlessly into the workflow. In this way, handheld devices are effective for many emergency ultrasound situations.

Handheld ultrasound helps you accelerate clinical decisions and perform guided interventions such as fluid drainage or securing central venous access in potentially life-threatening situations.