SonoSite M-Turbo Review

SonoSite M-Turbo Review[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I’m Brian Gill at Providian Medical, and this is the SonoSite M-Turbo Portable Ultrasound Machine. This is an excellent ultrasound machine with very good image quality, and is a well known solid ultrasound brand. The M-Turbo is an upgrade to the MicroMaxx machine, and the predecessor to SonaSite Edge. It has options helpful for its market including, advanced needle visualization software, compound imaging, auto IMT counts, harmonics, color empowered Doppler, PW CW Doppler and Duplex imaging. Now SonoSite products are designed for a specific market. In other words, these machines aren’t for everybody. That’s not to say it can’t do everything. In fact, this machine here is a shared service unit– it can do anything from OB/GYN to needle guides, to cardiac, and even TEE imaging. So why isn’t this for everyone? It’s because of its portability and simplified user interface. These are its greatest strengths, and also its weaknesses. It’s a fantastic machine for point of care bedside ultrasound– including needle placement, fast exams, emergency departments, anesthesiology and more. It’s an ideal system for physicians who are using this as a tool to visualize what’s going on the body, rather than something a sonographer would use eight hours a day making a lot of measurements, annotations, and calculations. No, instead, this is one of the machines that was designed for a specific group of users. Why? It’s a small system, small monitor, small user interface. The track pad isn’t really conducive to a situation where a lot of measurements are taken. You can’t make custom imaging presets, this keyboard is small, it’s limited image optimization, and there aren’t many bells and whistles. It’s designed for its simplicity. Pretty much what you see is what you get. As with all SonoSite products, these are the most portable, lightweight, and durable ultrasound machines on the market. The M-Turbo boots in about 15 seconds– which makes it great for emergency medicine, anesthesia, and any situation where it’s often used for minutes at a time– not hours. The transducers are drop tested and the machines can withstand more abuse than the standard portable ultrasound machine. Now the M-Turbo can run a variety of transducers, including Convex, Linear, Cardiac, Phased Array, Micro-convex And a Multiplane TEE. It also uses internal flash memory, which makes it better as a portable unit, and reduces its overall weight. There’s an optional cart, with a triple connect transducer available that allows you to connect three transducers for a situation where you’re using multiple probes. Now as I mentioned, this isn’t great for a full-time cardiology machine. That’s not to say it’s not good for cardiac. On the contrary, I’ve spoken with cardiac techs in the mobile situations who like the M-Turbo. They like the image quality and find that it’s comparable to others in its price range. Again though, they’re not in love with making measurements and taking annotations with this user interface. Most would prefer something that’s a little bigger and more friendly, but it’s something to consider in mobile ultrasound situations. So is the M-Turbo right for you? That’s tough to say. If you’re a physician looking for something easy and affordable with good image quality and Doppler features, this is one of your top choices. But there are situations where this may be a tougher decision. There are some really good ultrasounds in this price range. So try calling one of our experts salespeople who will ask you the right questions and guide you into making the right decision for your needs and your budget. I’m Brian Gill at Providian Medical, and that’s what you need to know about the SonoSite M-Turbo portable point of care bedside ultrasound machine. Thanks for watching.