The Gisela Hospital is a humanitarian project to ensure basic medical care for poor people in Habiganj, Bangladesh. Originally founded as an eye clinic, an emergency room and a training center for midwives were later added.
Built by the local development organization C-RUD (Committee for Rural and Urban Development) and with the help of a donation project organized by German doctors, the hospital is now under local ownership. All of the medical equipment was collected in Germany from donations of money and goods and sent to Bangladesh. This also included numerous older medical devices such as ophthalmological instruments, aids, examination and laboratory equipment that had been discarded in German hospitals and doctor's offices.
The request
In order to continue using an older ophthalmic ultrasound machine with a modern, space- and weight-saving flat screen, the hospital needed a way to convert the analog video signals into digital.
The device offers analog video outputs for S-Video and RGB. Both imaging diagnostics and biometrics can be carried out with the ultrasound scanner. The available image capacity can be concentrated on a defined sector, which results in excellent resolution for the desired areas. The use of a large monitor is necessary for optimal display of the high-resolution biometric images; however, no loss of quality could occur due to the signal conversion.
The weight of the old CRT monitor would have led to logistical problems and high transport costs. The very heavy monitor would have had to be sent to Bangladesh first, from where it would have been transported over rough roads and finally by hand to the hospital. In addition, repairing CRT monitors would have been practically impossible in the region, as older technologies are hardly known there.
The ultrasound machine, on the other hand, works perfectly and will be up to date for a long time to come. The same technology is still used in many German hospitals. Here, the Gisela Hospital benefits from the fact that in Germany, machines that are still working well are often replaced with newer ones at an early stage.
The solution
A solution for the complex requirement was quickly found. The K238-5VE multi-signal converter from IHSE converts all common analog video signals such as S-Video or RGB into digital DVI signals. This allows the use of older devices based on analog graphics standards in conjunction with modern TFT screens or projectors. All known VGA resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 are automatically recognized. In addition, the input signal can be scaled to a selectable format, which means that the ultrasound images appear on the monitor in full size and without distortion - of course without time delays or annoying image interference.
The multi-signal converter promises a high level of investment protection: the service life of older machines is extended by continuing to use them with new display devices, which is particularly valuable from an ecological point of view.
Since Gisela Hospital is a remarkable humanitarian project, IHSE decided to donate the converter to the hospital.
The use
With the help of the IHSE converter, the old monitor could be replaced with a new one, which, despite its larger screen diagonal, takes up significantly less space and is significantly lighter due to the extremely flat screen. In addition, the new monitor allows for better contrast and a more detailed display of the ultrasound images.
Thanks to the signal converter, even difficult-to-detect pathologies in the visual organ can be made clearly visible on the flat screen. The imaging processes can be used to diagnose dangerous diseases at an early stage. In such a critical area of application as the medical sector, where technology can make the difference between life and death in extreme cases, the reliability and fail-safe nature of the equipment are of key importance.
