To handle the crush of pandemic patients, providers have increasingly turned to portable diagnostic tools that can be easily maneuvered around point-of care-settings.

That’s the backdrop for GE Healthcare’s recent unveiling of Venue Fit, a compact point-of-care ultrasound system (POCUS), as well as an industry-first AI tool for cardiac imaging. The Venue Fit is the smallest system in GE Healthcare’s Venue Family, featuring a touchscreen, intuitive scanning tools, and a small footprint designed to fit in tight spaces often found in point-of-care settings.

While smaller in size than previous tools, the new system still provides the same Venue Family image quality, touchscreen, intuitive interface, and real-time documentation software that can save time and boost clinical confidence.

“With the new Venue tools, I don’t have to struggle with the interface to be efficient,” said Joseph Minardi, M.D., Chief of the Division of Emergency and Clinical Ultrasound and Director of the Center for Point-of-Care Ultrasound at a West Virginia academic medical center. “I can bring the device in with me, scan the patient, and using the Lung Sweep and RealTime EF (ejection fraction), I have the information I need right away.”

GE’s new release also included a number of new software applications. 

For starters, RealTime EF is the industry’s first AI tool that calculates the heart’s real-time ejection fractions (a measurement of the heart’s ability to pump blood effectively) during live scanning. The tool also provides an integrated quality indicator that helps users know when they have an adequate view to generate accurate measurements of critical cardiac measurements, which can help to reduce the need for ECG’s and support clinical confidence. 

Second, Lung Sweep is a rapid visualization tool that provides a panoramic view of the lung. The tool activates at the start of each sweep when the probe is tapped on the body and deactivates at the end of each sweep when the probe is lifted.

And, finally, the Renal Diagram is a simplified documentation tool that allows clinicians to select labels from a prepopulated list that correlates with the images captured, which, according to GE, makes it easy for other clinicians to follow up with patients that have suspected kidney infection. 

“This past year we’ve seen point of care ultrasound take a prominent place at the bedside for clinicians, driven by its intuitive design and AI-powered diagnostic prowess,” said Dietmar Seifriedsberger, general manager of point of care ultrasound at GE. 

“Understanding healthcare’s growing resource constraints and the challenges of today’s world, we’re expanding our Venue Family and offerings to help improve our customer’s workflow efficiency and diagnostic confidence,” Seifriedsberger continued.