MDI Medical has joined forces with University of Sunderland Medical School to raise awareness of the increasingly important role of ultrasound in early medical education through the delivery of four innovative GE Ultrasound machines with specialist Scan Coach Anatomy Software.

Medical educators recognise that ultrasound is a valuable tool for teaching living anatomy. MDI Medical’s UK-based team is working in partnership with GE Healthcare to promote the use of ultrasound into primary care and medical schools to allow medical students to familiarise themselves with ultrasound technologies earlier in their education in readiness for forthcoming clinical placements.

Turley, MDI Medical’s Ultrasound Sales Manager, said, “Incorporating ultrasound technology into the curriculum not only enhances the teaching of the living anatomy and physiology, it also ‘demystifies’ ultrasound for students at an earlier stage in their careers, giving them an advantage should they go on to attend more formal ultrasound training.”

As one of the original five new medical schools set up in 2019, MDI has worked closely with the Anatomy team at University of Sunderland Medical School to ensure that the technologies supplied supported the breadth of planned learning activities, from undergraduate medicine to outreach work in schools and public engagement events.

Debs Patten, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Sunderland Medical School added, “We want to prepare our students for forthcoming encounters with Point of Care Ultrasound and so we have incorporated ultrasound scanning into our medical curriculum from week one of medical school. We recognised that students need to have frequent opportunities and sufficient time in class to scan using high quality imaging technologies, so having enough cart-based equipment to do this was essential. We find the handheld devices are good for short teaching sessions and outreach work.”

Reflecting on the improved student experience as a result of incorporating this technology Professor Patten added, “Students report that they enjoy their ultrasound learning experiences, that they are memorable and that with repeated practice they are able to recognise sonoanatomy and find structures themselves. They have commented that they see the links between the ultrasound scanning they do in anatomy and their clinical studies, and they recognise that ultrasound is useful for their future clinical practice.

Sonographers teach our students and our anatomy staff in these sessions, but we also use the Scan Coach software on the larger portable ultrasound machines to support skill development for our anatomy staff. This is a really valuable tool which helps in several ways: it guides probe positioning, and highlights relevant anatomical landmarks, references ultrasound images of normal anatomy, provides examples of common pathologies and it provides instructions on gaining specific views.”

MDI Medical have been supplying UK Medical schools with GE ultrasound technologies for over five years, as more and more institutions introduce ultrasound earlier in their curriculums. We are proud to work with and supply over 60% of medical schools across the UK including: St. Andrews, Dundee, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Exeter, Lancaster, Manchester, and many more who are now seeing the benefits of using ultrasound within clinical skills and to help teach anatomy and bringing this subject to life. The team has also recently supplied the brand-new medical schools of Ulster and Lincoln University with GE’s latest state of the art ultrasound devices combined with patented Scan Coach software.