Where Was This Stethoscope When I Was In Medical School?

Israeli researchers have devised a non-invasive method of lung imaging called Vibration Response Imaging (VRI).

Kushnir has developed a new technology called Vibration Response Imaging (VRI) that measures energy generated in the lungs and analyzes it to diagnose conditions such as asthma, pneumonia, and lung tumors. On July 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Kushnir's Israeli startup company, Deep Breeze Ltd., approval to begin marketing a VRI device in the U.S. This comes on the heels of earlier approvals in Israel, the European Union, and South Korea.

...Kushnir's process, which uses no radiation, works by analyzing acoustic vibrations given off by the lungs. As a patient breathes normally for several seconds, sensors placed on the back—in effect, electronic stethoscopes—pick up these lung vibrations and feed them to a computer, where they're processed and turned into vivid images. Conditions such as asthma, emphysema, and pneumonia each produce distinct and definable images.

"In a matter of mere seconds, a doctor using the technology can ascertain an enormous amount of information about the lung that would ordinarily take hours and require the use of several devices," says Kushnir.

Source

This is but one more small step toward Dr. McCoy's hand held total body scanner wand, from Star Trek.

Non-invasive scanning technology has completely changed the practise of emergency medicine over the past two decades. More and more of the guesswork is being taken out of diagnosing possible life or death emergencies. Better monitoring of patients in the OR and ICU is now possible, thanks to improved transducer technologies.

Should we make a big deal from the fact that this is yet one more in a long line of intriguing inventions from Israel? I am inclined to say "yes, we should." The fact that these inventions are coming from Israel and not Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and other autocratic dictatorships and theocracies should give anyone who defends those hellholes (while attacking Israel) pause.

A number of western leftists and muslims would like to turn Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the US into copycat versions of one of that list of prison-nations. It is probably too late for all but the youngest of them to wake up and face reality, but the rest of us can choose for ourselves.