THROUGH his non-profit organisation, Jamaicans Abroad Helping Jamaicans At Home (JAHJAH) Foundation, Jamaican-born New York doctor Trevor Dixon has been making great strides in helping to revolutionise access to modern ultrasound technology in Jamaica, which he is very proud about.

The Jamaica Observer had a one-on-one sit-down interview with Dr Dixon recently at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Queens, New York, where he shared details about a pilot hand-held ultrasound programme that is currently underway on the island.

It is called the Jamaica Handheld Ultrasound Programme (JHUP). The programme is a collaborative effort involving the JAHJAH Foundation, American Friends Of Jamaica (AFJ), Jacobi Medical Center (Bronx, NY), and the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Under JHUP, AFJ purchases the Butterfly IQ hand-held ultrasound devices. JAHJAH Foundation and the Jacobi Medical Center are responsible for training doctors in Jamaica on how to use the devices, while the Ministry Of Health and Wellness oversees the programme.

“In 2018 something phenomenal happened with ultrasound. It moved away from these big devices and the technology changed where the ultrasound probe became like a cellphone. We identified a vendor that makes a small hand-held device called Butterfly IQ. This device allows you to use a phone or tablet as a screen, making it easy to conduct ultrasound scans of areas on the human body,” he said.

“It costs like US$2,100. Before, ultrasound machines cost like US$60,000 to US$70,000, and you don’t really need all the stuff that it came with. I said to myself that we could get a couple Butterfly IQ probes and give to different hospitals in Jamaica. We got introduced to Wendy Hart at AJF, who bought in on the idea and decided to partner with us.”

To date, AFJ has purchased more than 35 Butterfly IQ devices. In January last year, AFJ donated 24 Butterfly IQ probes along with 24 iPads to doctors attending JAHJAH Foundation’s annual ultrasound conference in Kingston.

In-person training is done in January of each year since 2018 at JAHJAH Foundation’s annual ultrasound conference in Kingston. Training then continues every two weeks throughout the year via online platform
Zoom and is done from the base camp at Jacobi Medical Center. JHUP is currently focused primarily on emergency medicine and maternal health, which means that the primary participants are emergency room doctors, obstetricians, and gynaecologists.

Dr Dixon, who is the director of the Emergency Ultrasound Department at the Jacobi Hospital in Bronx, NY, shared with the Sunday Observer that he has been conducting annual ultrasound conferences in Jamaica for 16 years, long before the hand-held ultrasound devices were invented.

Dr Hugh Wong, who is head of the Emergency Department at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and the senior emergency room physician with more than 20 years of experience, played a key role in getting this programme started in Jamaica. Dr Simone French from the University Hospital of the West Indies also played a key role.

“We work with Dr Wong who finds the hospitals and the people who can make sure everybody in their department knows how to use this ultrasound device. Every two weeks, the public hospitals have to present five cases so that we know they are using the devices. I told them that if the cases are not presented we would be coming back for the Butterfly IQ devices. If you are not going to use it then let us give it to somebody else who wants to use it. It is a principle thing,” the doctor explained.

Dr Dixon pointed out that it was difficult to say how many doctors have been trained and exposed to the Butterfly IQ technology in Jamaica but shared that the knowledge has reached staff at Spanish Town, Kingston Public, Black River, May Pen, Mandeville, Percy Junior, Falmouth, Lucea, Princess Margaret, and Port Antonio hospitals, among others.

“In terms of our impact, we are revolutionising ultrasound in Jamaica, but we are proceeding with caution. It is almost like when you are trying to light a fire, you want to make sure it catches good first before you tell people that the fire is lit. I want it to be lit to a point where it cannot be stopped. For instance, it is the same thing with ultrasound here in the United States. When ultrasound first came into the emergency room, radiologists were resistant and gave all kinds of excuses why we should not be doing ultrasound,” he explained.

“They said people were not trained and this and that. I was one of the pioneers who fought to get ultrasound in the emergency room. The radiologists didn’t have an argument for me because of my qualifications in ultrasound. When I sit at the table, they know. This is the same little boy from Jamaica and East Flatbush. I thought I bucked up in ultrasound, but it is really just my journey. Ultrasound is the first thing that patients need when they come into the emergency room.“

He added: “Even doctors in America are now learning that. It’s called a fast scan. You don’t have to wait until blood pressure drops or the patient is unconscious. If they get in a car accident and have a small amount of internal bleeding, if you catch it early, you can save that person’s life. You can take them to the operating room faster rather than be in the emergency room watching them and not know that they are bleeding inside. An X-ray is not going to show that. The only other thing that can do that is a CT-scan and only a small number of hospitals have CT-scan machines.”

According to Dr Dixon, the JHUP pilot programme is a testament of the kind of progress that can be achieved in Jamaica when like-minded, well-intentioned people work together for the greater good.