Find the Best Portable Ultrasound Machine

Originally all ultrasound machines were black and white only. (2D B & M modes) But now most diagnostic ultrasound machines have color and Doppler as a standard feature. Black and white portable ultrasounds are however gaining market share because of their extremely low price. Most new ultrasound machine manufacturers are using these low cost B&W portables to break into new markets that could not previously afford diagnostic ultrasound. The drawbacks to these systems are a lack of quality and reliability that have turned many doctors off to ultrasound altogether because of these predictable shortcomings. Technical glitches, buggy software, boot up failures and other problems have made a large number of brand new B&W portable ultrasounds useless in a few days or months. A few brands however have done better than others at addressing not only the reliability issues, but also poor workflow that makes them extremely hard to use and unintuitive. SonoScape has done an acceptable job of balancing cost savings with better (though still not great) reliability and a somewhat simpler workflow. The SonoScape A6 is an acceptable black and white portable ultrasound that uses the standard box-like monitor with a drawbridge keyboard design that comes from 10-15 years ago when hardware could not be fit into a smaller laptop sized format. The one advantage to this format is the space to put two probe ports rather than the usual one. The A6 can colorize its B&W images for better visibility and the screen is good quality. Though the SonoScape A6 is much cheaper (half to a third of the price of most economy portable ultrasound machines) it is still able to do most general imaging and OB/GYN scans that do not require Doppler or 3D.