Medical ultrasonic diagnostic system with upgradeable transducer probes and other features

摘要

A remotely upgradeable medical diagnostic ultrasound system (100) is described which is upgradeable with a new transducer probe (10) by means of air shipment of the upgrade hardware and remote transmission of upgrade data which controls operation of the probe. The ultrasound system includes a data communicator such as a network link (64) or modem (62) for receiving upgrade data from a remote location. A process for upgrading the system is provided whereby a communications link is established over a common carrier communications medium (110,112) between the ultrasound system (100) and a remote terminal, which transmits upgrade program data to the ultrasound system (100). The program data portion of an upgrade is provided via the communications link while the hardware portion of the upgrade is shipped by air freight to the user. In this way, an ultrasound upgrade can be provided to a user from a remote location in a matter of hours.