Closing the distance: how tele-ultrasound is bringing specialty care to every patient

“With the advent of tele-ultrasound, geography is no longer a hindrance,” said John Aleshire, Strategic Luminary Account Manager for General Imaging Ultrasound at Philips. “We can bring specialty care closer to the patient, instead of asking the patient to travel closer to the care.”

That shift is made possible by Philips Collaboration Live, a communication platform built into the company’s existing ultrasound systems. It lets a sonographer performing a scan talk, text, video stream and share images directly with a remote physician or specialist, who can even control the system functions to guide the exam in real time. Up to six participants, including system-to-system connections, can join a single session.

The technology arrives at a critical moment for the ultrasound field. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a shortage of trained sonographers, and many technicians saw their skills lapse during that period. Demand for qualified staff has outpaced supply ever since.

“New technicians can close the skill gap much faster when an experienced radiologist is looking over their shoulder virtually,” Aleshire said.

Since 2020, Perinatal Associates of New Mexico has used Collaboration Live to build out a tele-ultrasound program for maternal-fetal medicine, led by Dr. Michael Ruma. The practice opened satellite clinics so patients could receive care close to home, with a sonographer performing the scan on-site while a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, genetic counselor or other team member joined remotely, as needed. Diagnosis and treatment planning happen in the same session, with the full care team involved from the start.

The results have been measurable. In a prospective study of 30 patients undergoing routine obstetric imaging, all of them reported feeling they had better access to care using the platform[1]. A separate one-year analysis found the practice increased revenue by 44 percent after adopting tele-ultrasound [2], and a remote collaboration study conducted during the pandemic found a 57 percent reduction in echocardiogram exam times[3].

Remote monitoring technologies have existed in other specialties for roughly two decades, but ultrasound has lagged, largely because live image interpretation demands a level of real-time interaction that older telehealth tools couldn't support. Collaboration Live closes that gap and is simple enough to install in smaller clinical settings, which opens the door to a hub-and-spoke model: a central facility with deep specialty expertise supporting a network of smaller sites, each equipped to perform scans and pull in a specialist the moment one is needed.

That structure also reduces the number of in-person visits a patient needs and keeps every physician involved in a case on the same page, since they’re viewing the same images in the same session rather than relying on notes passed between offices.

Physicians report little to no patient hesitation about using tele-ultrasound. Most patients appreciate getting an immediate, coordinated diagnosis from every specialist who needs to weigh in, rather than scheduling separate visits over days or weeks.

For sonographers, especially those newer to the field, adjusting to the format takes some getting used to. But most find that the ability to have an expert guide them through difficult scans accelerates their learning far faster than working in isolation.

Beyond workforce and access benefits, tele-ultrasound eliminates radiation exposure entirely and tends to be more cost-effective than traditional imaging pathways, while saving time for patients and physicians alike. It also gives health systems a tool for chipping away at ultrasound scan backlogs: faster access to a second set of expert eyes means fewer repeat visits and quicker turnaround on results.

Aleshire expects the technology’s reach to keep expanding, particularly into home health, as ultrasound facilities decentralize and healthcare deserts continue to shrink. “Faster access to colleagues and technical support means less downtime waiting on scans and data and as the underlying technology keeps advancing, tele-ultrasound is positioned to serve an even broader swath of the healthcare industry.”

The technology will also be useful for serving dispersed populations like military servicemembers and veterans who are based in other countries or may not be close to a VA medical facility.

The larger promise is one shared across Philips’ collaborative care portfolio: distance and workforce shortages no longer have to determine the quality of care a patient receives.