Portable Transvaginal Ultrasound Simulation System

Overview

Liverpool Women's Hospital intends to place an order for 10 x Volutracer OPUS units on 23rd February 2026. This notice starts the 8 working day standstill period. The last day of the standstill will be 20th February 2026. The Northwest Maternity Team, were successful in securing NHSE funding to develop a Regional Cervical Length (CL) Scan Training Programme. The purpose of the programme is to increase the number of resident doctors (primarily) who are competent to perform cervical length scanning in the assessment of threatened preterm labour. This project is directly aligned with national ambitions to reduce preterm birth rates, improve the proportion of babies born in the right place, and maximise timely administration of all optimisation elements. Accurate diagnosis of threatened preterm labour is key, and cervical length scanning is the gold standard investigation to support this. We became aware of OPUS Volutracer through preterm birth experts in London, who are currently using and further refining this simulation technology specifically to support cervical length scan training. While other ultrasound simulators are available on the market, OPUS offers several unique advantages: • Significantly lower cost per unit compared with traditional large haptic simulators • Small, portable hardware that can be transported easily between sites • Can be operated from a standard laptop, enabling flexible setup in different clinical and training environments • Access to a virtual cloud-based library, allowing instant access to a wide range of validated cervical length and obstetric cases. For reference, other scan simulators e.g. Intelligent Ultrasound only have 2 cervical length cases uploaded for use. Access to other obstetric cases makes the simulators highly versatile. They can be used for other obstetric and gynaecology training courses delivered at LWH e.g. Basic Obstetric Ultrasound, Fetal Medicine Study Days, Early Pregnancy Ultrasound. • Ability to update and expand case libraries remotely without additional hardware • Access to the same evolving training package being developed and used by national preterm birth experts in London • Enables individuals or multiple small groups to train simultaneously, rather than relying on a single large simulator where learners must take turns • Lower ongoing maintenance and space requirements compared with large fixed simulators • Provides not just a standalone simulator, but a continually evolving educational and training system For these reasons, OPUS Volutracer has been identified as the only viable and proportionate option to support this regional cervical length scan training programme and to meet the clinical, educational and operational requirements of the project Funding has been awarded in February 2026 and needs to be spent and a training programme arranged and provided to staff before 31st March 2026.