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[[sound of heart rhythmically beating-easy listening music in background]]
[Having a portable machine was something that we always wanted to do]
[[Mike Blakeley-Clinical Instructor, Cardiac Diagostic Center, University of Ottawa]]
[because it was just such a big deal taking one of these large machines up.]
[The old equipment that was taken up there was about the size of a small fridge]
[and weighs about 450 pounds.]
[They have to be picked up by a transport truck and taken to the airport several days before]
[because they have to go on a different flight.]
[Now, you can use your GE Vivid i all day long,]
[put it in a laptop case, put it over your shoulder and go to the airport and get on the plane]
[An echo machine uses ultrasonic signals to analyze the heart.]
[They're similar to the type of machines which are used to look at pregnant women.]
[We can see the structures of the heart. We can see the valves. ]
[We can see how big the heart is. ]
[We can use Doppler, which is the same as Doppler for the weather, ]
[to look at the blood flow, and we can tell how fast the blood is moving ]
[or whether it's leaking into a specific chamber.]
[For one diagnostic test, it gives the doctors a wealth of information]
[prior to examining the patient.]
[[Huij Qu-EchoCardiovascular Technologist, University of Ottawa Heart Institute]]
[How to manage the machine, that's easy,]
[but you cannot pick up the disease.]
[You have to have clinical experience.]
[There's one case, the patient complained he fainted,]
[and I did an echo for him this morning.]
[We can see there's a flap in the lumen of the aorta.]
[What we call it is aortic dissection.]
[That's a very urgent situation for the patient.]
[The patient might die at any time.]
[Nobody noticed it before this test.]
[The patient's relatives--they were very excited.]
