Study: Widespread ultrasound adoption in primary care expected within 5 years

Santa Clara, California-based medical imaging software and devices company Exo (pronounced "echo") released its "2023 Survey Report: Unlocking Point-of-Care Ultrasound."

Based on a survey of more than 150 U.S.-based physicians, the report uncovers trends related to point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) adoption and use — such as challenges with existing solutions, their perceived value of handheld POCUS devices, and the impact of new innovations such as AI on medical imaging and ultrasound expansion into primary care.

POCUS provides immediate medical answers that caregivers need for diagnosis and treatment, but adoption still hasn't become widespread across the care continuum. Exo's 2023 survey uncovers reasons for this slowdown, and what respondents see could accelerate widespread adoption.

Key findings

A few of the key findings in the survey report include:

• The survey found that only 68% of ultrasound exams are documented, meaning that performed scans aren't showing up in patient records — which could risk compliance and legal exposure.
• Of those who said their POCUS exams were documented, only 50% cited that those exams were actually billed - indicating a significant loss of revenue for health systems. To address this challenge, facilities must have an end-to-end solution, not a device-only approach, for their medical imaging needs.
• An overwhelming 88% of surveyed respondents believe handheld POCUS availability will moderately or significantly increase POCUS adoption.
• 79% of survey respondents indicated that AI would positively impact POCUS, with 63% saying it would streamline image interpretation.
• Most respondents (61%) said it's important for primary care providers to adopt handheld POCUS devices, and a surprising 50% believed primary care use of POCUS will be mainstream within the next 5 years.

With innovations like AI and handheld devices making ultrasound easier than ever to use, it is inevitable that more caregivers will utilize imaging in more locations.

You can download the full report from here.

On the record

"POCUS is critical for a more equitable and healthier world. These survey results validate just how severely caregivers are craving a new medical imaging approach. That's why Exo has built a simple and accessible ecosystem to deliver immediate answers at the point of care," said Sandeep Akkaraju, CEO and Co-Founder of Exo. "Our ecosystem combines high-performance imaging to retrieve instant answers in any setting, workflow software to seamlessly document and bill ultrasound exams in seconds from anywhere, and AI to easily acquire consistent and accurate images in real-time. Medical imaging as we know it has entered a new age."

The context

The World Economic Forum has shared that more than half of the world's population does not have access to essential health services, including medical imaging.

The portability of handheld POCUS has the potential to be leveraged everywhere — in the back of an ambulance, in a rural community, or in the home — which leads to better patient outcomes and an improved caregiver experience, all at the point of care.

Exo provisioned Sage Growth Partners, a research firm, to conduct an online survey of more than 150 U.S.-based caregivers in June 2023.