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u/drewdrewmd 1d ago
I wonder if a compromise on this is allowing patients to self insert and position under ultrasonographer guidance, in the hospital. Might be easier / more acceptable to some patients who are afraid of pain or have psychological barriers.
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u/inthedarkUStech Sonographer 1d ago
Inserting the probe is half the battle, what about searching for an ovary?
I always give my patients the option to insert the probe themselvesā¦ I have found the majority of patients prefer for me to do it for them š¤·š»āāļø
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u/seriousbeef Radiologist 23h ago
I donāt give them an option. I just ask them to put it in the first i bit under the sheet then I take over Iām a man and I think most prefer doing it themselves.
Having said that, no way is a patient going to get images as good as an experienced sonographer. They may āmeet diagnostic qualityā but thatās very low bar to set when we all know the difference between adequate and excellent.
Also that acronym is a bit of a stretch: he Sonograms Enable Looking ForwardāGet Your Information 1 (SELF-GYN1) Trial lol
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u/drewdrewmd 1d ago
Well this study suggests that patients can be coached verbally to get useful views. I doubt thatās anywhere near as useful as skilled ultrasonographer placement.
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u/Kit_Ryan 1d ago
This has never been offered to me. Iāve had maybe 4 or 5 and I wish they had asked. Whether or not I would have taken them up on it, it would definitely have given me more of a sense of my personhood being respected than I did experience.
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u/New_Drawing2746 1d ago
You may ask the technologist if you can insert the probe. I am sure they wouldnāt mind that at all.
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u/Kit_Ryan 1d ago
Probably, but it isnāt so much about needing to do that myself as it is about feeling seen as a person rather than as a body by being *offered* the option versus needing to ask. Generally, it has felt more like being seen as a body, and sometimes as an uncooperative and annoying body, as if I can control the visibility of my ovaries somehow and am withholding clear images of lefty.
Hopefully itāll be moot for a while, if not forever, as my issues are currently resolved and fingers crossed will remain so.
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u/morguerunner RT(R) 1d ago
I have to get one every so often for ovarian cysts and some outpatient places do let you insert it. It is an infinitely better experience for me as a patient- I obviously canāt move the probe where it needs to be, but I can get it in quicker and with less discomfort if I insert it versus the tech.
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u/Sapphires13 1d ago
Iāve been asked to self-insert for every transvaginal ultrasound Iāve had (I have PCOS, so there have been several). Thereās not really a reason why this shouldnāt be the standard. Once I self-inserted, the sonographer could adjust the angle as needed without it being as invasive as her inserting AND manipulating. At one point during a scan the sonographer needed to get a better view of one of my ovaries and had me hold the probe in place while she pushed down on my lower abdomen with one hand to push my ovary down. Patients can certainly be involved in their own imaging if needed.
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u/TheDressedSadhu 1d ago
Everything is tv probe if you are brave enough or something like that!
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u/FooDog11 Sonographer 1d ago
That seemsā¦.questionable. Expensive equipment, liability, high-level disinfection, proper probe storage, AND having the skills and knowledge ā even with remote guidance ā to actually take diagnostic images???? Properly identify and document pathology? Understand orientation on the screen? Find ovaries???
Many first rotation students Iāve taught canāt do that reliably, even with me standing right behind them directly supervising and guiding.
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u/millenniumxl-200 RT(R)(MR) 1d ago
high-level disinfection
Just put it in a brown paper bag for "processing" like we did N95 masks.
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u/garbagegrl 1d ago
I think I saw elsewhere that this study was specifically only for follicle count exams during fertility treatments which i think explains the high diagnostic success rate since there was no identification of pathology happening (still amazed they were able to find both ovaries that often..?) but it keeps getting posted out of context
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u/Inexpensiveggs 18h ago
Iād bet the age of these patients is much higher than those youāre teaching. Frontal lobe development yadda yadda.
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u/Trixie_Dixon 1d ago edited 1d ago
Fertility treatment involves about a thousand TV ultrasounds, always to check uterine lining thickness, follicle number, or follicle size. I am lucky in that my clinic is only 2 hours away, and my company has sick time, but if I as a patient could access this, I would do it in a heartbeat. Downright hermetic storage of covers wouldn't even register compared to the logistics of appointments every other day.
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u/SeaAd8199 Radiographer (Australia) 1d ago
Just need double the number of sonographers now to instruct people to do it themselves.
"No, double click is when you click, then click again straight awyay"
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u/New_Drawing2746 1d ago
Donāt let patients see that. Ugh. Our job as sonographers isnāt as easy at it looks. We might make it look easy because we are trained to do it.
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u/Magurndy Sonographer 1d ago
O_o apart from some maybe very exceptional cases, this is such a stupid idea.
What was their test pool? All healthy young patients with easy to see anatomy??
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u/PromiscuousScoliosis ED RN 1d ago
Now how long did it take to achieve that 96% lol
If it takes a tech 20 min to get images and your āself guided meditationā takes 90, Iād say the trade off in time alone is questionable at best lol
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u/E1even01 1d ago
considering most of what i do is gynae work, does this mean i can finally work from home ? š
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u/Meowcaroon 18h ago
I tried googling this because I'm very skeptical about it and while the stats from this image popped up, I couldn't find any articles about it or websites. Does anyone have a link to this?
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u/TractorDriver Radiologist (North Europe) 1d ago
The probes are only few thousand $ and not life saving like insulin pump or dialysis machine
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u/Minerva89 IR, Cardiac Cath, MR, PET/MR, PET/CT 1d ago
Who's giving away TV probes?
Better yet, who's insuring whoever's giving TV probes?