For the multitudes of private medicos who have pined for a cheaper ultrasound machine or prayed for its portability, Trivitron could be the new messiah. The leading Chennai-based medical technology firm has introduced a unique concept called t3000—a laptop that can conduct ultrasound imaging.

It’s an idea that Trivitron picked from the American diagnostic ultrasound technology firm, Terason, the brain behind the product. After the t3000 won the Frost & Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award last year, Trivitron decided to scoop it up for the Indian docs. The collaboration has opened up unlikely avenues for dissemination of medical services in the country.

“While post-graduate institutes have placed mass orders, the machine is likely to become more popular among private practitioners in two to three years because it’s small, handy, cheaper and easy to use,” says A.B. Sivasankar, Director (Imaging), Trivitron.

Weighing around 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and costing around Rs 10-12 lakh (“compared to the conventional ultrasound systems which cost Rs 14-15 lakh”), the machine can be used for general, vascular, and breast imaging, interventional radiology, image-guided intervention, endocrinology, laparoscopy, neuro-sonography and nephrology. A sensor attached to the laptop sends sound waves inside the patient’s body and the laptop placed half-a-metre away displays the images.

Though portable ultrasound machines are not new in India, the uniqueness of t3000 lies in the fact that it combines imaging with PC-related work functions. So images and reports can be transferred to standard Word processing and presentation software applications, and sent via e-mail to the desired destinations, all without compromising on image quality.

The t3000 runs on the standard Apple Mackintosh laptop and its brain is Terason’s Fusion Processor, the world’s only fully custom-designed, integrated ultrasound chip set. It has the familiar Windows graphical user interface, conventional user controls in a slideout console and can operate on batteries for over two hours.

The system has a modern scanner design with 15-inch TFT monitors, an electrocardiogram and DVR capability. It has a built-in hard drive, internal storage for more than 50,000 images, and J2K board for efficient video clip recordings and the imaging modes include 2-D, tissue harmonics, M mode, colour Doppler, spectral Doppler and power Doppler.

So far, Trivitron has introduced four machines—two in Bangalore, one each in Chennai and Jaipur—and will bring in 100 more this year in cities like Udaipur, Chandigarh and Delhi.

“We will begin advertising about the product by end-April, when Terason chairperson arrives in India,” says Sivasankar. The promotion will include advertising in medical journals, a series of roadshows, seminars and workshops. The active advertising notwithstanding, it’s unlikely that doctors will require much convincing to zero in on the product.