As mobility in ultrasound equipment becomes appealing to circumvent the larger equipment not easily transported room to room, the patients in emergency situations, the doctors that do not have the space or allowances for a full-time technician, we are confronted what to buy and when. 

After reviewing a few different systems, a system that stands out in price and imaging when it comes to Obstetrics, Gynecology and different vessel guidance scanning applications is the Sonoscape A6 or its upgrade, the S8 portable ultrasound machine. 

Sonoscape products not only offer the essence of fundamentals for imaging, the company itself translates ultrasound into cost savings by offering a product suitable for all applications and one that allows you to capture and keep the reimbursements to further grow your bottom line in revenue.  By doing this, they provide machines that can compete with the top manufacturers by generating optimum imaging results on their equipment and lowering the cost of equipment. 

What people don't know as much - is the name, that is, when compared to something like the GE name.  Sonoscape is rising to the competition and certainly acknowledging market share can be gained in the portable ultrasound equipment markets and has put their experience, research and technology at the forefront to make this happen.  In doing this, they're also locking in reputable distributors like All Imaging Systems in California, USA.  According to a conversation and partial participation in a demonstration with All Imaging Systems, they performed a live side-by-side comparison against other products like Philips iE33, GE Vivid I, and Sonosite MicroMAXX.  They indicated these were the products currently in their refurbished ultrasound machine inventory when the demonstration took place which was the reason they chose these machines.  These machines were the basis for comparison against the Sonoscape S8.  The results:  very strong images that gave a compelling argument for S8 against the competition for obstetrics and vascular applications with different procedures (kidney, liver, IMT, MSK, and more).  They clearly indicated that when looking at GE's refurbished or new ultrasound equipment prices, Sonoscape may, and has, easily changed many minds to afford their new ultrasound machine instead.  They indicated for a portable ultrasound machine starting around a $25,000 price point is not as likely from any of the big manufacturers and, with the resolution, the outcome of extremely clear images along with enhanced features without the burdened extra cost, Sonoscape is a very viable alternative.  For more information on the Sonoscape S8 portable, you can click here S8.  In reality, this system is easily recommended for obstetrics, gynecology, emerging scanning methods, and vascular with cardiac coming in second to those applications when looking for a cardiologist and not as strong as the Vivid i, clearly. 

In addition to the S8 portable ultrasound, a quick review of the Sonocape A6 and the first popular competitor of this portable ultrasound would be the Mindray DP6600 or DP6900.  If you are searching for a Mindray DP-6600/DP-6900 (not too much difference), you may want to stop and look more clearly at the A6 Human or A6Vet  equipment.  The differences - many and vast but I will note what I witnessed while this demonstration took place. 

At first glance, the Mindray product is more bulky and harder to carry.  Upon booting both portable ultrasound systems up, the Mindray has a not only a smaller screen (10" versus the Sonoscape A6 12"), but a much smaller image viewing area (3" versus SonoScape A6 5").  The A6 portable has a tilt screen which is great for these small portables, it angles to 30 degrees.  The major findings in a summary would be as follows:

*More probe types for vascular, obstetrics, gynecology, podiatry, orthopedic, vessel guidance

*Scanning angle on endovaginal probe is 180 degrees

*Do transducer elements make a difference?  Yes, they have 128 elements, Mindray has 80 elements

*10 different biopsy positions and angles (none on Micromaxx)

*Chroma - yes

*Dual Imaging

*The Sonoscape A6 portable has Cine, a deeper scanning depth, more Gain, Chroma function, greater Zoom, more compact, LCD screen, Bi-Plane transducer option, Less Weight to carry and overall – better imaging.  For more information on this unit, please click here A6 portable ultrasound.  Drawbacks are few and far between but the hard drive is small so saving to a usb thumb drive is becoming prevalent and is available on this machine.  DICOM options are limited on the A6 at this point in time but R&D are always evaluating ways to enhance their machines for more opportunities so I gather this may be on the agenda.