Here are some questions to ask or consider when you are about to evaluate your current machine, or purchase a new one, and examine your clinical sonography and telemedicine workflow:

1. Is your preset correct and are you using the right probe? This should be taught to you by the support people within the distributor where you purchased.
2. Is the preset optimized for that sized patient? Highest frequency with adequate depth penetration to readily image the whole organ or region.
3. Have the various presets and respective probes been tested over many patients before being implemented? This should be a support mechanism from your distributor.
4. Is your monitor sized at least 15-18”?
5. Is your screen resolution at least 1920 x 1080?
6. Is the processer strong enough to move through the adrenal gland approaches in a 3 second video (or faster) without pixelation?
7. Is the acoustic power strong enough with the correct low frequency probe to image cleanly the intercostal liver of a 140# Newfoundland?
8. How does the software look? Is the image too soft lacking contrast or can you distinguish organ curvilinear infrastructure readily from organ to organ?
9. What is the cost of staff time? To review, imagine if your time is not optimized with the use of the machine as a clinical sonographer.
10. Are your workflow steps minimized or are you doing a bad ballroom dance with the machine workflow?
11. Is your transmissibility of a case streamlined in case size and steps to send it or is the file transmission hanging up in the process?
12. What is the cost of your technician’s time in patient setup, restraint, image transmission and case submission (Highly recommended if you are trying to optimize your time) with you as the veterinarian sonographer?
13. Or what is the cost of your technician’s time if he/she is doing the scanning? Technicians can become optimal sonographers and we have seen that and fostered repeatedly.