Imagine having in your backpack something the size of a flip-open-style cellphone, except it's not a cellphone – it's an ultrasound screen and control panel. That plus a small wand and you have the non-invasive ability to look deeper than skin color/temperature/moisture, to look for fractures, to characterize impalements, and more. Now that's incredible. And it exists such as with "Vscan Pocket Ultrasound" by GE.

I read a medical journal article about how someone had knee pain, no one could figure out why after taking xrays and other steps, the poor guy went on with pain for weeks or months, and eventually a doc decided to look in using ultrasound and found an impalement (a wood splinter if I recall correctly) lodged in -- which was not identified in the xrays.

If only money grew on trees! I hope and can't wait for the price to drop significantly from the current ~$5,000; then it'll become my newest tool to help people out.

- Matt