White paper

As an anesthesiology trainee, Dr. Manoj Wickramasinghe typically spends his day in anesthetics or in intensive care. When he’s in the ICU, he chooses to have the Butterfly iQ3™ probe—our point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) device—by his side at all times.

Dr. Wickramasinghe keeps the iQ3 in his pocket, so it’s available immediately when he needs it. The POCUS device captures sharp, high-quality images and lets him conduct the scans of his patients he needs anywhere in the hospital without having to switch probes.

After a scan, ultrasound image storage can be just as important as capture. What happens once clinicians have used a POCUS device to gather information and answer immediate questions? For Dr. Wickramasinghe, images captured with the iQ3 upload to the Butterfly Cloud in minutes.

Butterfly’s cloud-based solution can help improve:

• Image accessibility and integration into existing PACS
• Collaboration and clinical decision making
• Workflows and physician productivity
• Image management and security
• POCUS education and clinician skills development

Let’s explore these key benefits of the Butterfly Cloud.

Accessibility and integration

The Butterfly Cloud offers clinicians immediate, flexible access to ultrasound images from any ultrasound device, anywhere, at any time. Images upload straight from the device to the cloud, reducing physician’s burden and increasing efficiency.

With access to ultrasound images from any device (whether smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer) via the Butterfly app, clinicians gain enhanced mobility to review images. They can collaborate with other clinicians across departments in real time and gain essential external input from across their health system. Whether a colleague is nearby or at another location, they can answer key questions quickly and help make decisions for the patient faster.

Butterfly Cloud also resolves governance and storage issues through interoperability. It can integrate with existing hospital information systems and electronic health records to:

• Streamline documentation
• Reduce administrative tasks
• Enable seamless image sharing

Clinician collaboration and clinical improvements

Without simplified access to images, there’s no guarantee another clinician can review and assess them to make recommendations unless they’re in the same room.

Here’s how clinicians might interact without a cloud-based solution:

• The ICU team conducts an advanced echocardiogram.
• Their cardiology colleagues can’t see the images that are saved onto the cart-based machine, unless they are present in the room, meaning they may not have enough information to agree with the original assessment.
• Most often, the consulted cardiologist will request another departmental echocardiogram, causing delay in care while inconveniencing and potentially frustrating the patient.
• The second echo may not be done for  a few days, delaying when those images are uploaded to the electronic health record (EHR) and available for patient care.

The Butterfly Cloud transforms this process. Once the intensivist captures ultrasound images, the images upload to a central cloud that multiple teams in different departments can access. As a result, a cardiologist can retrieve and review them right away and offer input simply by following a link. The hospital saves money because multiple scans are not needed and the patient receives focused treatment sooner.

Whether a colleague is on another floor of the hospital or located across the country, the Butterfly Cloud enables real-time collaboration through instant image sharing to answer questions in the moment and aid decision-making.

Data management and security

Patient data security is crucial — including for ultrasound images. Healthcare regulations like HIPAA and GDPR require that patient information remain safe, secure, and easily traceable. But compliance can be difficult to achieve when storing images directly on an ultrasound machine.

The Butterfly Cloud creates a clear path to data security and compliance, allowing:

• Near-instant uploads of patient images
• Data anonymization
• Simplified workflows

Butterfly’s cloud-based solution for ultrasound images enables automatic backup so clinicians no longer need to manually store images on a physical device. Instead, data is always securely available via the cloud through a mobile or desktop app — limiting the risk of loss or corruption and no device storage limitations. Users also receive patches and updates on a recurring basis incredibly quickly.

Workflow and productivity

The process of saving and documenting ultrasound images captured locally can be time-consuming and inconvenient. The Butterfly Cloud significantly cuts down the time needed to save, label, store, and retrieve ultrasound images captured with any POCUS device.

By using the Butterfly Cloud, Dr. Wickramasinghe and clinicians like him can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time on patient care.

Capture, store, and share quality ultrasound images with Butterfly

An encounter-based approach using POCUS is the future of best-in-class patient care. Instead of a clinician having to leave the patient’s side to place an order, Butterfly’s work flow supports efficient clinician scanning when they want, where they want. When paired with the Butterfly Cloud, handheld ultrasound devices like the iQ3 play a role in:

• Improved patient data sharing and storage
• Greater clinician efficiency
• Faster decision-making
• Better patient experiences

If you’re ready to achieve these outcomes for your staff and patients, let’s connect to uncover how Butterfly can meet your needs.