The TEDMED audience uttered a collective, “Wow!” when Yoav Medan showed pre- and post-treatment handwriting samples to illustrate the life-changing outcomes being achieved by the FUS Foundation-funded Essential Tremor clinical trial. (Thank you, donors, for making these outcomes possible!)

Focused Ultrasound wows the audience at TEDMED 2011

“Mind-blowing” and “inspirational” is how TEDMED 2011 attendees described yesterday’s focused ultrasound presentation by InSightec’s Vice President and Chief System’s Architect Yoav Medan. A medical conference like no other in the world, TEDMED brings together leaders and innovators in the fields of medicine, science, business and technology. Other speakers at this year’s TEDMED conference included cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, legendary architect Michael Graves, US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra.

The inclusion of focused ultrasound on TEDMED’s agenda places it among an elite set of breakthroughs shared with a world-class audience. More importantly, it validates focused ultrasound’s stature as a game-changing technology and indicates the enormous impact it could have on healthcare worldwide.

For more, please visit http://www.fusfoundation.org/Blog/yoav-medan-presented-mrgfus-at-tedmed-2011-today

NICE has reviewed this treatment, and has recently issued new draft guidelines which have made some important changes to the provisional recommendations.

Please see here for the full document:   

http://guidance.nice.org.uk/IPG231/DraftGuidance

Specifically:
"1.1  The evidence of efficacy in the short term is adequate [and] the procedure may be used with normal arrangements for clinical governance and audit."

This guidance is significantly different from NICE's 2007 comment that "1.1 Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of magnetic resonance image (MRI)-guided transcutaneous focused ultrasound for uterine fibroids is such that this procedure should only be used with special arrangements for consent and for audit or research."-

At last - the first European Symposium on MR- guided Focused Ultrasound Therapy

Professor Gedroyc will be chairing several meetings at the 1ST European Symposium on MR- guided Focused Ultrasound Therapy, taking place this week in Rome, Italy. He will be talking about back pain in bone tumours, and liver and pancreas MRgFUS.

The full scientific programme is available on www.fustherapysymposium2011.org

Focused ultrasound pioneer, Wladyslaw Gedroyc, MD, named Honorary President of FUS Foundation's 2012 Symposium

The Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS) Foundation has announced the selection of Wladyslaw Gedroyc, M.D. of Imperial College and Saint Mary's Hospital in London as Honorary President of the 3rd International Symposium on MR-guided Focused Ultrasound.
A consultant radiologist, Gedroyc is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the development of noninvasive patient treatments using MR-guided focused ultrasound. Much of Gedroyc's ground-breaking work has involved the treatment of uterine fibroids and abdominal conditions such as pancreatic and liver tumors. He is currently investigating a focused ultrasound application to alleviate the severe back pain associated with facet joint disease.
FUS Foundation Chairman Neal F. Kassell, MD, noted, "We are delighted to have Professor Gedroyc serving as Honorary President. He is a preeminent clinician and thought leader who has been a driving force in the field of therapeutic ultrasound. We deeply respect and appreciate his accomplishments and applaud the vision and values that have shaped his work."

The 3rd International Symposium on MR-guided Focused Ultrasound will be held October 14- 17, 2012 in Bethesda, MD, USA. Gedroyc anticipates that the symposium will showcase and contribute to the escalating progress of preclinical research and new clinical applications. "I hope that symposium attendees will gain a huge insight into the full range of applications that focused ultrasound can provide to them and, therefore, to their patients," he said.