The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has published its January 2014 Focused Ultrasound Global
Perspective report, a comprehensive overview of the state of the technology, including facts and figures on approved indications, manufacturers, research centers, and treatment sites. This report will serve as a trusted resource for academia, government, industry, and investors, enabling them to monitor progress in the field and guide decision making.
The report is now available on our website. An update will be produced every six months, identifying significant research and commercialization trends for the technology.
Key information includes:
- There are 394 commercial treatment sites around the world
- The total number of research sites has grown to 169 worldwide
- 140 clinical
- 84 pre-clinical
- 55 technical
- There are currently 16 approved indications, with Europe treating the most medical conditions
- Essential tremor is the first approved brain indication
- The number of focused ultrasound equipment manufacturers has grown to 22
The Foundation’s intensive 5-year effort to develop a partnership network with equipment manufacturers, researchers, and clinicians has allowed us to build the infrastructure needed to compile these data. Foundation staff collected information on this rapidly evolving field via outreach in Asia, Europe, and North America, by attending more than 30 conferences and symposia, visiting more than 80 research sites, and meeting with manufacturers.
Although a similar report was issued in July 2013, the new report has a much broader scope and many additional listings, including the technical research sites. The Foundation has created tools for gathering data, including quarterly surveys that are individualized to each type of stakeholder and a new quality assurance mechanism to ensure integrity of the data. It is imperative that our community continue to respond to these surveys so that we can produce this report on a bi-annual basis with data that are accurate, current, and meaningful.
This report supports the Foundation’s mission to hasten global adoption of the technology and provides a roadmap to help direct our work. Comments and questions should be directed to Heather Huff-Simonin, Director of Global Business Development, hhsimonin@fusfoundation.org.