Tom Brown can lay legitimate claim to inventing the first medical ultrasound machine 50 years ago, a landmark development that combined the talent of Glasgow’s shipyards and its hospital wards.

He was the engineer whose expertise allowed the vision of Ian Donald, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at the city’s Western Infirmary, to be realised in a practical form. Their collaboration saved the lives of mothers and babies across the world.

But Brown is not content with merely being remembered for his achievements to date, and at the age of 75, is developing a new generation of ultrasound machines.

He is motivated by the worrying shortage of sonographers who operate the machines. Pregnant women in Scotland are supposed to get two routine scans, but many miss out because so many of the hospital staff suffer from repetitive strain injury (RSI).

The problem is exacerbated by fat patients, who are more difficult to scan. Sonographers must strain to reach over them and press the probe harder to get an image.

“It’s quite common for them to do about 20 examinations a day,” Brown said. “Eight out of 10 of them will suffer from RSI within the first five years of starting full-time work and 20% of them give up work completely. The problem is that to do the scan, you’ve got to hold the probe, which is quite heavy and drags a cable with it, and reach over the patient to waggle it about and press it into the patient.”

The Society of Radiographers has begun a study into the issue and early feedback confirms Brown’s concerns.

“I’m looking at the causes of RSI and the people I have spoken to are saying that because of obesity, they are applying more pressure to patients to get a reading through the tissues,” said Lyn Wiggley, policy officer for health and safety at the Society of Radiographers.

“I know that some departments are short-staffed because of people being off with RSI. Other staff are picking up the workload and so it’s a vicious circle, because they then start suffering. It is a big issue, because how do we deal with it?”

Brown has set up a company, NoStrain, to help apply for a patent for ideas he believes can address the problem.

“This is a low-tech thing, a mechanical aid to stop people getting sore arms and necks,” he says. “But it will involve a degree of the use of robotic techniques that have been developed for industrial purposes. Quite a few Scottish companies are interested, but unless I get patent protection, it will be difficult to persuade manufacturers to take them up.”

Half a century on, Brown’s mind is still turning over the possibilities for ultrasound.

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