A pilot project has brought together American and Canadian doctors to remotely train medical personnel in Yemen on patient diagnosis using a portable ultrasound device. Bridge to Health Medical and Dental, an organization empowering low-resource settings to establish low-cost, sustainable solutions for care, teamed up with Butterfly Network to use the latter’s portable ultrasound to help providers improve care for their patients.

Doctors and nurses may be preoccupied with threats of violence from irate patients or visitors, staff working the night shift may dread the long walk to a remote parking garage, and hospital administrators may be worried about uncontrolled access to valuable equipment and prescription drugs. All of these concerns distract from the mission of any hospital or healthcare facility: the critical work of healing.

Modern ultrasound technology can be a game changer, particularly for remote organizations with limited resources and staff. Point-of-care ultrasound specifically offers portability, ease of use, and immediate access. Sometimes, those benefits can even be a case of life or death.