Main Menu

Services

eHealth

Telesonohraphy

Quantum computing

Ideas

C.A.D Color ultrasound

Looking for referrals

Medison Sonoace 6000 Digital View

Specifications:

Pros

• 2-year warranty
• Image quality is really excellent. I have found no noise at all
• The images saved to the floppy drive have excellent quality. The best I have found
• Just one intracavitary probe for transvaginal and transrectal examinations. It saves time, money and effort. This probe works great for both transvaginal and transrectal examinations.
• The intracavitary 6.5 MHz probe has an excellent view field: 15 cm deep!
• 3 different frequencies available for each transducer and they really make a difference
• Image filing is very helpful
• Zoom capabilities are outstanding. The best I have found
• Cine memory is very useful, specially when scanning children
• The keyboard lighting is excellent. The best I have found
• Probes are very light, easy to use and to orient
• The user key (to save macros) is working very well now and it is very useful
• It is very easy to change probes. It is unnecessary to turn off the machine
• The machine looks pretty and has a professional looking
• Keyboard orientation is very comfortable. It has ergonomic design
• The kart has advantageous free space. It is very well designed. The best from the machines I have used. Unfortunately it has a big defect (see Problems and Warranty)
• Probes position is appropriate
• The user key is very useful to save macros
• Medison seems to care about physicians' needs
• Guarantee service has been good and fast.

Problems and Warranty

Medison upgraded my software on July 25/1998. There are new features and it also fixed several problems. The machine works a lot better. The software works like windows95: many bugs. However, they changed my Hard disk and many bugs seemed to be fixed now. And finally the PC interface is working!

1. The main monitor position is not straight.
2. The place to locate the video printer is too deep and the printer door could not open. I fixed it
3. * is not possible to work over the images saved to memory banks. It is also impossible to use the image filing function for these images
4. The operation manual is poor. Medison does not tell how to use several things (floppy drive, the PC interface, the left pedal, etc.). I have had to solve many problems by myself, included Y2K compatibility (with ext. s/w)
5. Body marks mask data display
6. It is not possible to save images when using the body marks
7. We cannot use the body marks for dual images. It works just for one image

Suggestions to Medison:

My main and strongest suggestion: Include inexperienced sonologist to help the engineers design the machine functions and algorithms. This suggestion is valid for all manufacturers. I have seen no machine yet that has no useless functions and does not lack useful ones.

• Enable an easy way to directly send the images the PC hard disk. They gave me a cable con connect my PC to the scanner but they told me I am the only physician doing and using that
• Complete and better file manager for image filing
• Use the Windows Platform
• Include a screen saver. It is a MUST!
• Enable a password for the machine
• Enable the volume function for all applications
• 2.5 mm Trans-esophageal probe
• Built-in gel heater
• International character set
• More room (characters) for the Hospital name
• More specialized software
• Include control and escape keys or an extra keyboard and a second Monitor
• Enable movement to the zoom window

Questions to Medison:

Question: What image improvement should we expect by using the tissue functions (cyst, solid, fatty, normal?

Answer: Medison people told me they still do not know

Question: Do you supply biopsy guides for the transrectal probe?

Answer: Medison engineers told me they sell these, but they have not sold any to me. I have not found them available for purchase but found several from other manufactureres. BTW, Now I can detect 7 prostate Cancer signs and found Prostate Biopsy almost unnecessary

Comments:

• I finally found a way to check the SA6000 for the year 2000 problem. After several tries, I realized it works but most users will have no easy way to verify it.
• Many physicians use PCs to save our patients' records. Some of us are also used to saving images in our PCs. I am sure it is about time we all took advantage of machines like the SA 6000 that let us easily save images on diskettes. I am doing it since 1994, and find the advantages of this procedure very helpful.
• I tried 5 different line printers (HP LaserJet 5P, HP 820 Cix, Canon BJC 600, Epson FX 1050 and Epson LX810) and none worked. Medison recommend the HP DeskJet 850K
• The patient monitor had many important defects: its position was not adequate. It was very easy it fell or got bumped by patients. Its resolution was poor. Medison replaced it for an auxiliary 12" black and white monitor on Oct. 17/97. The new one works excellent and it is really useful to practice ultrasound guided biopsies and get a more comfortable view angle when scanning breast, muscles, shoulder, etc. Patients also prefer this kind of monitor.
• I think the SA 6000 printer port is unnecessary. What we really need is to save reports and images to our PCs. We need data portability and ways to save it to backup storage media as well
• Medison recommends connecting the equipment to a voltage regulator. I would better recommend a good UPS, specially if you use the image banks and cine memory. You will not lose data because of power faults.
• Image quality was improved right after the software upgrades. Image printing quality also was improved for the 3.5 MHz and intracavitary probes. Some problems were also fixed