IIT Delhi, AIIMS develop remotely-accessible ultrasound system

NEW DELHI: Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi have invented a new technology for performing ultrasound remotely through a robotic arm.

In the regular ultrasound procedure, the doctor must stand close to the patients. In order to maintain social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors are performing “cross-sectional imaging” which, according to a statement from IIT Delhi and AIIMS, is “a more expensive and less dynamic technique”.

The system developed by the research team “allows remote ultrasound access through a robotic arm”.

The research team was led by Chetan Arora and Subir Kumar Saha at IIT Delhi, and by Dr Chandrashekhara at AIIMS. Suvayan Nandi was the lead contributor from Addverb Technologies.

“This requirement came to us from the faculty of AIIMS New Delhi, when the whole nation had been put on lockdown in June 2020, and the number of cases and deaths was rising rapidly. The prevailing situation impacted regular health care services, especially those involving direct physical contact with patients like ultrasound scanning. We wanted to contribute to the safety of healthcare professionals by leveraging our expertise in robotic technology,” said Arora and Saha in their statement.

Dr Chandrashekhara added:, “This system will promote healthcare and make our system more prepared for further pandemics. Besides its role in the pandemic, it will allow a better outreach of ultrasound imaging to remote rural areas of India. The radiologist manipulates the ultrasound probe remotely from a remote location, acquires the ultrasonographs, and then transmits them to the monitors at the doctor’s end through a Wi-Fi network. Sitting at a remote location, the doctor can visualize all the images and assess the patient, similar to a clinical setting. The facility can also be extended for global outreach.”

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