Development of the Pocket Doppler for AI Cloud Connectivity

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is the buildup of plaque in a patient’s peripheral arteries, most common in the legs and feet. PAD currently affects about 10 million Americans and is an underserved disease as there is no outstanding treatment. Early detection is the best treatment for PAD as it enables patients to make healthy lifestyle changes. PAD diagnosis is often missed or diagnosed too late as the symptoms are either non-presenting early in the disease progression or masked by other comorbidities, such as diabetes and renal disease. Late diagnosis puts patients at risk for major adverse limb events (MALE), major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and death. Continuous wave (CW) doppler ultrasound is currently used for PAD diagnosis by measuring changes in blood flow and finding the location of plaque buildup. Some of the main issues with current diagnostic practices include being expensive, time consuming, inconvenient, uncomfortable, and having no prognostic capabilities. Thus there is a need for a highly accurate and inexpensive method offering diagnosis and prognosis of PAD in one appointment. Our device is a wireless, gel-less, pocket sized, 8MHz CW doppler ultrasound that will transmit the patient’s doppler waveform to Mayo Clinic’s AI algorithm for a full diagnosis and prognosis in under five minutes all in a single appointment. Physicians will be able to perform a doppler ultrasound at a regular appointment and have the patient’s diagnosis and prognosis of PAD automatically available on a nearby phone or computer. The team hopes that our device will enable patients to get diagnosis and care earlier and cheaper enabling them to make the proper lifestyle changes to reduce their likelihood of experiencing MALE, MACE, or death.

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