I really wont comment other

I really wont comment other units as we drive Mindray Elite8/Ninja in all our mobile operations, though I had driven another primary brand for years up until 6 years ago when i was faced with a series of technical challenges that weren’t getting resolved by the distributor or the producer of the unit and had to make a move away from that brand out of necessity. On this I will tell our story and you can evaluate from a historical perspective:

The Elite 8s/Ninjas are battle axes and reliable and well warrantied. Regarding warranties  remember a service contract over 5 years has to be added to the price of the machine to compare pricing and this often is an after the sale discussion once you have committed to the purchase like agreeing to buy a car for 35k and you walk off the lot with having paid 42k and wonder what happened? Know the service contract up front, add the 4-5 years of that cost on top of the quoted price and then you have the real cost of the machine. Service contracts are $2-4k/year x 5 years of a machine life.

We chose the Elite 8 at the time over all the other comparables for a myriad of reasons that would become an informercial and this is not the forum for it. My reality is that I both scan in the field 2 days/week and I read lots of telemed from tons of machines and have driven tons and collaborate with others that drive other mobile machines and I never have waivered on our choice to have 10 Mindray Elite 8s or now Ninjas in the field every day between our various mobile markets. Disclaimer we sell only the Ninja now as its an upgrade of the Elite 8 (not a strip down or offshoot) that we originally brought to the vet market from the human market. We tested, modified, improved, and validated the Elite 8 and then watched other Mindray distributors selling offshoots of the Elite8 platform “benefit” off our extensive R&D, validation, and consequent visible marketing of Mindray Elite 8 who was a minor obscure player in veterinary field until we made this R&D effort.

(Note the 9 and 10 numbers on mindray models have nothing to do with the “progress” of the machine. They are simple marketing and funtional scenarios to bring the units into the USA as “different” machines. Its a customs thing not a development thing)

When you drive all the veterinary models whether Esaote GE Philips or others ensure you use the correct probe recommended by the distributor associate and do a cat heart, a pancake cat, mid sized dog and large dog abdomen and heart and thyroid on all units you are trying. Look at screen size and resolution. What is easy on the eyes and do the adrenals pop or do you need to squint to see them?

Look at knobology steps and how intuitive the machine is to work with. Then see how easy or tedious it is to offload a full case in 500 mb and not a Gb or 2 GB+ and count the steps it takes to do that. These are the key points for a mobile sonographer and a matter of image footprint and work flow efficiency both of which are crucial to business success and getting er done whether mobile or in clinic. More steps means more time lost. Big files means time lost and frustration. Broken machines are distrous events in mobile or in clinic with reveue and market inertia lost as well.

Now go back through the beginning of this post and you will see why we chose what we did and why we beat the Elite 8 up in testing and development and tried to make it break. Before we decided to sell machines I wrote these 3 articles that wll help your selection as a consumer (www.sonopath.com scroll down to articles on the home page). After I had finished writing these Sonopath consumer support articles revealing the secrets from behind the scenes in the industry where I have lived for 20+ years well before I started SonoPath, I came to the conclusion that we had to sell a do-it-all mobile machine to ensure the clinical sonographer process was truly done right. Or, at least, there was a solid place for the vet sonographer to go for support by those that scan and interpret cases all day long.

At that point the machine search started as I had to buy 6 machines at the time for our mobile operations (no small choice or $) and had to take all the workflow and quality issues listed above into consideration x 6 sonographers and tons of scans and sends and interpretations/month. Which machine gets me through the scan with the greatest images the fastest and easiest and offloads the case intuitively with minimal file size? I/we had to go to the human side to find it and bring it to veterinary and test the heck out of it in the field with all body types and organs, develop tested and proven presets for all scenarios and drive them all day in the field x 10 sonographers to ensure as plug and play for anything that touched the probe… hundreds of cases before pulling the trigger on more R&D and distribution of utrasound machine sales and continue to work to improve its footprint in veterinary body types and presentations.

That is our history with the Elite8/Ninja and honestly, despite all the ugliness in the capital equipment industry and unprofessional challenges we have had to address and continue to do so every day, we are still very proud of what we have done scientifically with these units. That is our reality and scientific history behind the ultrasound machine the last 6 years. We did it this way because this is what we as consumers would want from the company we buy from and be supported by over the life of the machine.

Note the Elite 8 is no longer sold in veterinary medicine as of the beginning of 2022… at least not legally which negates the warranty if purchased from a human medicine dealer. The veteirnary upgrade is the Ninja. Off shoots are out there but remember caveat emptor. Just ask if the machines are field tested with all body types you will run into. You will already know the answer. Moreover, ask all these machine characteristics I cited above of sonographers that use the various machines you are looking at, especially with mobile sonographers, preferably not referred to you by the distributor to ensure impartiality.

One other thing remember manifacturing lot to lot machines change, software changes and errors can occur without notice. DSo model X in January may not be the same model X in June. Manufacturers change things without the distributor knowing it so you test a model with software X1 and you receive another manufacturing lot with software X2 or X3 or something doesnt scan right or consistently patient to patient, they changed a processor or a chip, especially when there are supply chain issues like current day. Back in the 2000s when the team I ran in NJ would have this happen a ton with a major brand with 7 machines in inventory and even though we received the same model the next manufacturing lot scanned differently than what I trialed or had already, there were always 2-3 machine in inventory that were just “off” and woud scan differently with same body type and they just never could be tweaked into consistent scanning. These units were just passed from manufacturer to distributor and presets from prior software were installed and not road tested but just box to warehouse presets installed  and a few button checks tested then back in box and out to consumer. Then I, the consumer, had to deal with it as nobody at the distrubtor really scanned anything unless they put their own pet under the probe on rare occasion. I guess i have to thank that time for my streetwise education that I use now to make better decisions and try to pass it forward 🙂

Hope this helps:)

Again read the articles. I really stuck my neck out there 6+ years ago with the truths behind the scenes that nobody selling in the industry wants you to know and likley made a few people behind the industry doors grumble and perhaps use some profanity with my name attached:) But it was the right thing to do so you can make an educated decision that you will be happy with and live with as you will be “married to your machine” through sickness and in health for 5+ years. I had been a clinical sonographer consumer for many years and paid many prices of wrong choices and frustrations and hope this pass it forward effort will continue to serve the industry for the better. I hope the articles serve you well no matter what you choose. Good luck and i applaud you for reaching out to educate your choice. Way too many people don’t do their homework or fall prey to misinformation and pay the prices for it.

E

I can but i think it would be

I can but i think it would be more appropriate for elite 8/ninja users from the community to add images as I’m not here to advertise but to inform and eveyr distributor will just put their rock star images on a yorkie adrenal up there for eye candy when thats not reality in an 80# lab. Show me 80# lab adrenal and then you have my attention if it pops.

I will say the c11 microconvex probe has the most image quality range of any worker microconvex that i have tried and the p10 for feline and toy breed cardiac is a game changer for echo as there has never been a mid level mobile machine that does all cardiac functions cw pw cf and such really clean in cats. c5 macroconvex or c6 microconvex ninja probes for big dogs but c11 gets there 95% of the time so those low F probes sit in my case more than any other. The c6 is decent but we are working on making it better but being a mircoconvex low frequency probe is a game changer as well but we are still refining the software on it. I pulled the ninja probe from human interventional use (catheter/stent guidance and such) as that is what it was designed for originally by Mindray R&D. The linear 14 mHz probe I only use on thyroid or eye and occasional ortho that i do becaue the c11 lights up the GI and spleen and hi end views so well i can see mucosal striations really well as if it was a linear so i zoom with it and the striations and subtlties pop so the linear stays in the case unless a thyroid or other small part. The 2 probe port i dont miss because i came from GE use originally which has single port but also i only switch probes going abdomen to cardiac or vice versa given the probe image quality range as described above so if you have higher use range then you dont need dual ports if that makes sense.