Tele-Ultrasound Deployment in Rural Areas of Peru
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Tele-Ultrasound Deployment in Rural Areas of Peru
Fri, 29/11/2019 - 09:30 to 10:30
Location:
Speaker:
Professor Benjamin Castaneda
Affiliation:
Pontificia Universidad Católica, Lima, Peru
Synopsis:
Millions lack access to adequate diagnostic imaging services in rural areas worldwide. As a low-cost and portable imaging modality, ultrasound will play a key role in correcting these disparities. However, access to ultrasound technology is limited by availability of trained sonographers and readers in rural areas. As a solution, an ultrasound based telemedicine imaging system has been developed for deployment in rural areas in which ultrasound naïve rural health workers perform volume sweep imaging (VSI) protocols based on only external body landmarks for diagnosing obstetrical, gallbladder, and thyroid pathology. Our telemedicine ultrasound system was piloted in an academic setting at the Pontifical Catholic University of Lima and in the Peruvian rainforest. Health workers were trained on VSI protocols, image capture, labeling, and electronic transmission over 2-3 days. Trainees then obtained images from patients requiring obstetrics, gallbladder, or thyroid scans. Images were uploaded to a cloud-based system and then downloaded and read by radiologists all using custom software. Preliminary results suggest that trainees can learn VSI protocols within 3 days. More than 800 cases have been read using this methodology. Our complete telemedicine system can provide a low-cost and scalable diagnostic service suitable for deployment in rural areas.
Please contact Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas (M.Kersaudy-Kerhoas@hw.ac.uk) if you would like to arrange a meeting with him.
Biography:
Benjamin Castaneda is a Full professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP). He obtained his M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology, NY and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, NY. After his Ph.D., he founded the Medical Imaging Laboratory at PUCP. He has more than 15 years of experience on biomedical Ultrasound and medical imaging analysis. Dr. Castaneda’s research topics include quantitative elastographic imaging (breast cancer diagnosis, prostate cancer detection, skin characterization), computed aided diagnosis tools (automated diagnosis of Tuberculosis, spondyloarthrosis, follow-up of treatment for Leishmaniasis, and preventive diagnosis in maternal-perinatal health), and telemedicine (obstetric ultrasound and colposcopy). For his research work, he has been twice finalist for the Young Investigator Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (2007, 2011). He obtained an honorable mention from the worldwide engineering contest of Mondialogo (sponsored by UNESCO and Daimler, 2007), obtained an honorable mention in the SPIE Medical Imaging International Conference (2008). In 2013, Dr. Castaneda received the Academic Innovator Award from the Peruvian Government for his continuous work in the development of medical technology (SINACYT/CONCYTEC, 2013). The same year, he won the Best Patent from the Peruvian Government (INDECOPI, 2013) for an automated staining system for tuberculosis detection. The same invention received a silver medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva (2014). He is also the founder of Medical Innovation & Tecnology, a Peruvian start-up focused on the development of telemedicine technology for rural areas. He is currently a member of the Peruvian Committee for Health Informatics and the IEEE Bio-Imaging & Signal Processing Technical Committee.