Smartphone-, Tablet-, or App-Based Portable Ultrasound: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness

Over time, advances in technology have allowed for previously bulky and fixed medical devices to become smaller and portable. This change has resulted in portable ultrasound machines that can be brought to the patient and be used at the point-of-care. As a result, point-of-care ultrasound technology is increasingly being used as a diagnostic tool. More recently, ultrasound devices have been made even smaller and more portable by pairing a wireless ultrasound probe with a smartphone or tablet via an application. There remain questions about the clinical effectiveness, safety of these new devices compared to existing portable ultrasound and standard ultrasound. Concerns have also been noted with regards to maintaining privacy and security of medical data collected with a cell phone.This topic was identified as part of CADTH’s Horizon Scanning Service for an early assessment bulletin. The objective of this Rapid Response report is to summarize the clinical effectiveness of smartphone-, tablet-, or app-based portable ultrasound devices.