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TEDMED has released the full presentation given by Yoav Medan on focused ultrasound at TEDMED 2011. Also, this talk has been released on the TED site as well! “Can non-invasive surgery ever become the norm? Medan shows how an MR guided, focused ultrasound technique works instead, and its potential for faster recovery times and new cures.” Also, there was a 2 minute follow up question and answer session with Yoav at the end of his talk.  

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (November 29, 2011) – The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation has announced that its Research Awards Program is funding a Mayo Clinic study that will be the first to use U.S. commercial database information to compare the costs of three minimally-invasive treatments for symptomatic uterine fibroids, a benign and often debilitating condition that affects more than one in four American women. Bijan Borah, PhD of the Mayo Clinic has become the FUS Foundation’s newest Research Award recipient. Borah, who is an Assistant Professor in the College of Medicine and an Associate Consultant in the Division of Healthcare Policy and Research at the Mayo Clinic, has received $100,000 for a yearlong research project entitled, “Costs of Uterine Fibroid Treatments Including Focused Ultrasound Surgery.” During the project, which is expected to launch in December 2011, Borah will collaborate with Thomson Reuters. Their goal is to provide much-needed evidence on healthcare cost comparisons of MR-guided focused ultrasound, uterine artery embolization (UAE) and myomectomy for the treatment of uterine fibroids. The study will use Thomson Reuters’ proprietary database of healthcare claims from approximately 130 large, self-insured American employers, a database that provides a good representation of the insured women in the U.S. According to Borah, very limited information exists about the cost-effectiveness of MR-guided focused ultrasound relative to other uterine fibroid treatments. “There is a critical need to gather comparative evidence data on economic outcomes associated with MRgFUS as compared to the existing alternatives – UAE and myomectomy,” he explains. To address this need, the Mayo Clinic study will provide healthcare cost comparisons of the three modalities for periods of one-year, two-years and three-years. Reimbursement game-changer Despite the FDA’s 2004 approval of a MR-guided focused ultrasound system (InSightec’s ExAblate 2000) to treat uterine fibroids, few healthcare insurers currently provide reimbursement for the procedure. Most of the 2,500 American women who have undergone focused ultrasound treatment for uterine fibroids have either paid out of pocket or participated in no-cost clinical trials. If the Mayo Clinic study shows that the cost of MR-guided focused ultrasound procedures for uterine fibroids is equivalent to, or lower than, comparative procedures, Borah believes it could be a game-changer in terms of reimbursement. “Payers/insurers will be incentivized to begin covering MR-guided focused ultrasound for the treatment of uterine fibroids,” he says. “Since uterine fibroids are the first FDA-approved indication for MR-guided focused ultrasound treatment, this study may also have implications for other indications which are now investigational.” Clinical trials are now underway or pending in the U.S. to investigate MR-guided focused ultrasound as a treatment for pain associated with metastatic bone cancer and for essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease and malignant tumors of the brain, breast and prostate. Borah’s co-investigators on this study are Elizabeth Stewart, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic; Teresa Gibson, PhD, Director, Health Outcomes, Thomson Reuters; and Ginger Carls, PhD, Research Leader, Thomson Reuters. About the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation is an internationally-recognized advocate for the rapid development of new, reimbursable patient treatments using focused ultrasound (FUS), a noninvasive therapeutic technology named one of “The 50 Best Inventions of 2011” by Time Magazine. Developed to its full potential, FUS could revolutionize treatments for many of today’s most serious and debilitating conditions, including bone, breast, brain, liver, pancreatic and prostate tumors, stroke, essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. Clinical adoption of this innovative medical technology is expected to save lives, alleviate suffering and prevent disability for millions of people worldwide. A high-performance, not-for-profit organization with global reach and an entrepreneurial spirit, the foundation hosts symposia and thought-leader workshops, funds preclinical and clinical research, supports the establishment of FUS Centers of Excellence, promotes patient awareness and education, and serves as the nexus of a collaborative research network consisting of sites and investigators around the world. The foundation’s work is made possible by contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations.  For complete information, visit www.fusfoundation.org. Media Contact: Ellen C. McKenna 434-326-9827 emckenna@fusfoundation.org

The visibility of focused ultrasound is skyrocketing. TIME Magazine has named it one of the 50 most inspired ideas, innovations and revolutions of 2011. In its coverage, TIME heralds MR-imaging and focused ultrasound “remarkable in their own right”and observes that “something life-changing” emerges when the two are combined.

Researcher interview: Seung-Schik Yoo, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Focused ultrasound researcher, Seung-Schik Yoo, PhD, is driven by a desire to help people with brain disorders. As leader of the Neuromodulation Working Group formed by the FUS Foundation’s Brain Program, he is collaborating with a multinational, multi-disciplinary team consisting of 27 specialists in neuroscience, physics, biomedical engineering and imaging. Their goal is to determine how pulsed, low intensity focused ultrasound can be used to assess region-specific brain functions and to modify and control aberrant brain activities.