Ultrasound Training Phantom (UTP) “NAVIGATOR”
Ultrasound guidance is commonly used for vascular access procedures. It includes peripheral venous, central venous, and arterial cannulations. Proficiency with ultrasound-guided vascular access involves extensive practice, as image interpretation and visualization of the needle tip can be challenging. The consequences of misplacing the needle can be life treating and cost thousands of pounds to NHS.
The phantom “NAVIGATOR” has been developed by biomedical engineers jointly with clinicians from
various hospitals. During the first training sessions, this phantom proved effective and simple to use.
We developed the ultrasound phantom “NAVIGATOR” for the following reasons:
1. Improve the quality of medical patient care
2. Improve clinical skills in ultrasound-guided vascular access
3. A cost-efficient tool to run the training session for junior doctors or medical students
4. Increase confidence in needle insertion before performing on live patients
5. Reduce the cases of misplacing the needle and unwanted expensive and painful
6. Achieve higher success rate in-plane or out of plane needle insertions.