Why VPT The things that first interested me about VPT is it's ultrasound/echo-cardiograms (echo) tech because I have a congenital heart defect (transposition of great arteries) which puts a lot of stress on my right ventricle. I'm ok, just always had to take it easy and go for 1-2 echos/year with a visit to cardiologist.
The cardiologist sometimes wants me to go into the MRI and I try to stay as still as possible, but sometimes I might move, cough, sneeze, itch and they must redo some parts of the scan. Not too bad but it takes a long time. Sometimes they want me to do a trans-esophageal echo-cardiogram which despite the local aesthetic is pain incarnate. Doing this to a child is a tragedy.
Imagine doing this to a child. I can, I was there my entire life. Not fun is an extreme understatement. Now imagine doing this to a baby. The modern alternative is dosing a baby and sticking them in a MRI which didn't exist when I was a child.
So echos are a regular part of my life and I know them well. They take a long time, even by the most experienced techs/cardiologists. The regular echos (lay on your back or side) at the best of times are quite uncomfortable and often painful when they are forcing the sound wand between your ribs.
When Dr. Adams says it is criminal to be doing this to a child when there is a much friendlier alternative he is 100% correct and every cardiologist and patient will agree. That it's more affordable alternative to a MRI is just a bonus.
I don't know when GE will start selling in the US, maybe they already are in open states like Texas. What I do know is there is a backlog of people like me who need regular echos and haven't had one since before the pandemic. You see, when a heart starts to strain, this can "evolve" very quickly and become life-threatening. Hence the need for regular echos.
I watched the Biopub interview last night (worth the watch) and completely understand exactly what Dr. Skinner was explaining. This is game changing tech for the echo-cardio community of which I'm a lifetime member. If I can get a 45-60 minute echo reduced to 5 minutes, sign me up. I'm sure hospitals will be very happy to reduce the man hours they have to pay and clear up echo backlogs, which brings me to my next observation about the tech.
In regular times, unless you are one of the first scans of the day, you ALWAYS have to wait for your appointment because the scans almost always take longer than scheduled. If your appointment is at 11am, don't expect to get in until 11:30 or 12. If your appointment is in the afternoon, bring a book or a newspaper because you will be waiting. These appointments are booked weeks if not months in advance because that's just how it is, they are busy.
Now factor in that 99% of us life-timers and new cardio patients (heart attacks, bypass, etc.) are way overdue for our regular checkups. There is another epidemic looming besides the covid, it's all of the displaced patients due to covid. And then there's the new cardio patients with covid related heart damage. The list of echo appointments just went from usually long to marathon.
There is a tsunami that is about to hit every department in every hospital. It's the regular day-to-day functions that have been cancelled for over a year.
This is why this tech is needed. If it's as accurate as Dr. Skinner says, and that it pays for itself after 3 weeks as Dr. Adams says, hospitals will/must adopt this. This is a when, not if, tech. I believe the testimonies of the cardiologists Dr. Adams quotes. Seeing these units in ICU where the techs are not so proficient at ventricular echos, absolutely. VMS+ will make their jobs go from hard to easy. From being highly trained to be skilled to being proficient in a few hours. It will keep patients, from babies to adults, out of MRIs and out of the hospitals faster.
That's my 2 cents.