Solar-Powered Point-of-Care Sonography: Our Himalayan Experience.

The benefits of sonography utilization in low-resource communities has been thoroughly demonstrated in the literature.1-3 As ultrasound units have become smaller and more portable, the feasibility of bringing these imaging devices into more remote areas is becoming a reality. One factor that limits ultrasound use in austere environments is battery life. Although solar power has been used for oxygen delivery5,6 in resource-limited settings, its use in sonography has not been previously described. This report describes the use of a Lumify (Philips; Amsterdam, Netherlands) for a month-long trip into a remote Himalayan region of India powered exclusively with an Anker (Shenzhen, China) solar panel for the entirety of the trip. According to the Palmetto Health Institutional Review Board, this does not qualify as "research" as defined by the US Department of Health and Human Services and therefore does not meet the requirements for institutional review board review.