Eric Blackwell, MD

My ultrasound training began when I was starting the second year of a neurology residency at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had just finished a year of general medical internship which was a requirement for neurology residents.

I would like to share with you a few words about the use of a-mode ultrasound (echoencephalography) at Bowman Gray. My training began several years before the ready availability of computed tomography in the emergency center setting. An early application of ultrasound was for rapid screening of trauma and stroke patients for intracranial mass lesions.

The photograph below was made about 1975 in the ultrasound laboratory at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. It shows a Schleiren photography system for visualizing the actual shape and focal properties of an ultrasound beam. The optical bench at the right had a light source (far end) which was diffused into an "aquarium" containing degassed water, then focused to a point.

Pictured below and to the left is the ultrasound scan unit that launched my ultrasound career and pictured to the right is Dr. John M. "Jack" Reid (and his wife) who designed it while working with clinician Merrill Spencer in Seattle, Washington in the mid 1970's.

Some of the earliest efforts involving the use of ultrasound for guidance of renal biopsy procedures took place at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine Ultrasound Laboratory in 1974 and 1975.

OBGYN.net Conference CoverageFrom 45th Annual Conference of the AIUM - Orlando, FL 2001

OBGYN.net Conference CoverageFrom 45th Annual Conference of the AIUM - Orlando, FL 2001

OBGYN.net Conference CoverageFrom 45th Annual Conference of the AIUM - Orlando, FL 2001

OBGYN.net Conference CoverageFrom 45th Annual Conference of the AIUM - Orlando, FL 2001

OBGYN.net Conference CoverageFrom 45th Annual Conference of the AIUM - Orlando, FL 2001