Following the announcement of MIT’s new study on a newly developed sticker-based tool for continuous ultrasound imaging; James Spencer, Data Scientist at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers their view:
“Ultrasounds are a huge milestone for a mother-to-be. It is a health check-up, but most importantly a first chance to see the child with whom one will spend the rest of their life. It is also a huge hassle. In today’s age of over-crowded hospitals, highly infectious diseases, and general uncertainty, just scheduling an appointment can be an ordeal in itself.
“MIT has just published a paper promising a revolution in the field of ultrasound imaging, not just for expectant mothers, but for diagnostics as a whole. They have developed a set of 48-hour stickers that give a continuous ultrasound imaging when applied to the body. Unfortunately, this currently needs to be connected to a huge ultrasonic imaging machine to get pictures, but the team is working on an AI tool that allows these stickers to communicate directly to a user’s phone instead.
“Depending how this technology develops, this could be a game changer in several fields of medical devices. Not only does this provide a smaller, more compact method of ultrasound imaging, but a doctor could perform an ultrasound screening of a patient from thousands of miles away if these stickers could be packaged and sent to remote locations. This would make diagnostics of organ health, disease—or, of course, pregnancy—much more accessible in the world of remote patient monitoring.
“Investors will definitely be chomping at the bit to see the results and efficacy of clinical trials coming out in future. The results of these trials will determine whether these stickers can revolutionize healthcare.”
