Sci-fi movies seem to always have handheld scanners of one kind or another that tell future doctors everything they need to know about injuries. What better way to solve a health problem than to run a quick scan and look at a detailed color picture of someone’s insides? Spaceships send teams to remote and uncharted locations where medical resources are scarce (no cocoons or caskets that can repair or even completely rebuild a human), so portability is key.

Well, fiction is coming closer to reality again as a USB ultrasound device is waiting for FDA approval. Medical Technology Business Europe has reported the announcement by Direct Medical Systems:

Ppups is a complete ultrasound imaging system built into a small USB-compatible probe for B-mode imaging. The cost of the probe is under $3,700 and it weighs 7.5 ounces. The probe is operational by loading the software and plugging the USB cable into the USB (2.0) port.

I have to say, from my own experience building an Ultrasound network, that this seemed like the most likely medical technology to go portable since most of it already was fairly mobile. Now if they could just get that hand-held MR (or at least home-based) program off the ground, we could all rest a little bit better at night; especially those of us in remote and uncharted territory.