EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Technical comparison of Ultrasound machines for radiology applications

Hi ,
I recently joined the forum and would like to know if any u had done a comparitive study on ATL HDI 5000 SONO CT, Siemens ANTARES and GE Logic7 ultrasound machines. we are planning to expand our radiology departmetn at the moment are seriously considering the purchase of a dedicated ultrasound machine for the radiology department.
Would really appreciate u'r feed back on this subject.
Thanks
Manny

The Dept of Health is busy publishing evaluations of ultrasound equipment at the moment !
Which one you buy seems to depend very heavily on exactly what you intend to look at !

Hello Manoj, Although I have not been involved with comparative studies on the machines you have mentioned, there is no doubt that you will not be disappointed if you go for these 'Top of the range' ultrasound machines. The ATL particularly is probably the best at present for Radiology. The GE logiq 700 is good too. There is strong competition now to have all the applications available for all the disciplines though you will find that the particular machines are built to be dedicated to only one main area even though they carry the applications for other areas. That is to say that the Research and Design finances are mainly dedicated to one area only. Once you have your machine and you wish to use it in a different area, if you pay a little extra you can have these other software applications in some machines "switched on" for you as they may already reside inside the machine just waiting. Acuson concentrate on Cardiac applications as does Hewlett packard. However the Sequoia (as well as the older work-horse models of the XP 5 & 10's) from Acuson is also good for Radiology too. If you are looking for a good GENERAL lower-range machine that has everything, try the GE Logiq 500. All the above are well established and extremely reliable equipments in their field. Recently there has been a big take-over of medical manufacturing companies by the big three, GE, Siemans and Philips. They have bought out the likes of HP medical, Acuson etc. From a functional view-point, the one thing to remember is that these machines have a lot on-board and therefore your sonographers will have to be prepared to relearn much when they take on a new machine and this should not be discouraged. If they are well trained they will not need much time to settle in with them as they are now designed with the 'ergonomics' in mind. Additionally the companies supply Applications Specialists who will come and show them how to quickly get around the essentials etc.
Hope this helps. Nick

Thanks NIck, We have got offers from all three ,GE,ATL and Siemens. ALl of them say that their technology is the best and they all have features like 3D and 4D. Siemens say their system is real compound imaging with real time acqusition. GE claims to have B- flow and LOGIC view. ATL has X RES and I scan. WE had demo of logic 7 and are waiting for Anatares demo from Siemens.At the moment we are using Logic 500MD machine in radiology and the machine is a real work horse. Has ECRI published the comparitive results of latest ultrasound machines? All the manufacturer's use such technical jargon like coded harmonics, coded excitation ,it is really difficult to compare these models without help from some non biased external agency.
Heard from GE that they had sold 10 logic 9 units in Saudia . Thanks very much once more for your advise.

Manoj - Unless the department is desperate for 3D and 4D whatever 4D is!!!! do not let them waste their money. For one thing, there will be a lot more development and inovations coming up in that direction in the future that will make the earlier designs look very basic probably. Actually the advantages of 3D for radiology are not as great as say the area of Obstetrics. As for the modes and jargon you mention, I have to say that it is all new hype to make the customer feel they are getting something really great that sometimes their rivals have not got yet. These things will generally only be frills! (compound will probably only be concerned with 3D and as for real-time, all the scanning is done in real-time - a good example of making the customer think he has got something extra! Anything essential that needs to be on-board will be there now whatever top-line machine you buy. I do not know how many machines you are wanting to purchase, but you may be better off suggesting they buy one or two of the best and use the work-horses for the rest. Any imaging anatomical queries the sonographers will have as far as what they are seeing is concerned can be dealt with by transfering the patient easily to the top machines for verification. The reality is that for much of the work the sonographers will do on a daily basis, the facilities offered and paid for in these expensive machines, are not used much and therefore the money spent on good work-horses such as the 500 is probably money better spent. I will check out the last Ultrasound ECRI to see if they have anything to say. - Nick

Thanks again Nick, for the quick response. I'm also of th eopinion that the dept should not go in for a 4D as it is just a marketing tool for the Gynae dept. As far as the sonographers are concerned msot of them are happy with the old Logic 500 which we will be upgrading to Logic PRO and at the monet we are just going in for one top of the line machine .
The prices quoted are in the range of Dhs 700,000 to 800,000 ($190,000 to $215,000).
NIck can i trouble u for some other information,my colleauge Buck Rose wants to whether U know the where abouts of Trevor Jenkins and Lyod Schausmith. He sends his regards for Frank Murphy.
Cheers

Manoj, There has only been one evaluation on Ultrasound machines in the last 'however long' and that was in August last year. Sorry about that. Perhaps it is time they did one, as the market is very competitive. The sad thing is that I am certain that many on the clinical side buy these extremely versatile and complex pieces of electronics on the feel of the keyboard, the looks and the ease of being able to find their way around things, and not on the technical brilliance that the engineers have put into the machine to give them a very good image.

As for the whereabouts of our Trevor Jenkins, he may be in England or in Texas. I had heard that he was in the US of A and I did send him an em at
Christmas but so far have not had a reply. His whereabouts would be easy to find. I will send you his em address. As for Lloyd, I do not know him but had heard that there was a Lloyd who once worked here at RKH over 10 years ago and may still be in Riyadh. I will ask around. I will also pass on Buck Rose's regards to Frank Murphy. That is the second referal for Frank I have had. Must get him into the 21st century with his computer! Nick