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Neal Kassell and I joined more than 800 leaders from across all sectors in medical research – philanthropists and investors; medical research foundations and institutes, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, academic investigators, payers, and policymakers” for the FasterCures’ Partnering for Cures 3rd Annual Conference held in New York City during the last few days, November 7-8.  It was a robust gathering of notable leaders, including FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence Chairman Michael Rawlins.  While the conference was dedicated to accelerating medical progress, the device industry was surprisingly absent, and the agenda was completely centered on the biotech community.  Michael Milken appreciated this perspective, so perhaps we’ll see the diagnostic and therapeutic device community better represented in the future.  It was gratifying to see the reimbursement issue brought front and center during a panel discussion entitled, “Who will pay for tomorrow’s medical breakthroughs?”  This discussion brought home the fact that payers are critical to the ultimate availability of focused ultrasound technologies, especially in North America and Europe.  You can watch videos of the panel discussions and read more at the Partnering for Cures website http://www.partneringforcures.org/ .

UPDATE:Videos from the presentation at TEDMED 2011 have now been released! InSightec notified the Foundation with the following information this afternoon: “This morning, California time, Dr. Yoav Medan, Chief Systems Architect of InSightec, delivered an invited talk on MRgFUS at TEDMED 2011 in San Diego.

Well-known focused ultrasound researcher Nathan McDannold, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, is scheduled to discuss the use of MR-guided focused ultrasound in delivering cancer drugs across the blood-brain barrier at the Society of Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting, scheduled for November 17-20 in Orange County, California. This year’s meeting is being held in conjunction with the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors. McDannold’s talk, entitled, “MRgFUS induced blood brain barrier disruption and novel drug delivery for brain tumors,” is scheduled for presentation during the society’s Education Day on November 17. “This is the first time that SNO has included a discussion about MRgFUS in its annual meeting,”said Jason Sheehan, MD a neurosurgeon who is co-chair of Education Day and co-director of the Focused Ultrasound Center at the University of Virginia. ”We’re hoping that this will help educate participants about the emerging role of MR-guided FUS in neuro-oncology.”

Patient profile: John Watterson Recently, FUSF Director of Development Kimberly Skelly was delighted to receive the following unsolicited letter: