Design and implementation of an ultrasound system using a smart phone.

Abstract

According to the WHO, about 40% of pregnant women will experience delivery complications, while about 15% need obstetric care to manage complications which are potentially life threatening to the mother or infant. Women die as a result of complications during and following pregnancy. In the current health care system, millions of women do not receive routine screening and services related to reproductive and childbearing risks because they lack health coverage outside of pregnancy and/or have limited access to high-quality preventive and primary care. Maternal and infant health depends on the functioning of the entire health system hence; it is important to understand that about 15% of all pregnancies end up with life threatening complications; some of which cannot be detected or predicted during antenatal care due to poor or a complete lack of access to essential services like ultrasound scans and mothers may end fatally if not managed appropriately. Even though the government of Uganda has focused its effort on creating and increasing awareness of the benefits of ultrasound scan, a very big number of pregnant women have failed to comply due transport difficulties to the hospitals, thus this method has not been effective. This project was therefore aimed at designing and implementing an ultrasound system that uses a smart phone that would allow the pregnant women to carry out ultrasound scan from anywhere at their time of convenience. The work is arranged mainly in six chapters, Chapter one includes the introduction of the design of an ultrasound system. Chapter two discusses the literature related to the system, Chapter three illustrates the methodologies used in coming up with the working prototype of the system, Chapter four includes system design and analysis, Chapter five contains the implementation and testing of the system and chapter six contains the summary of the work, discussions and recommendations.