Vendor Profile: Alpinion Medical Systems Offers a Pre-clinical Focused Ultrasound System

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Based in Seoul, Korea, Alpinion Medical Systems has been offering ultrasound devices since 2007. Half of its 185 employees are R&D engineers, indicating the company’s strong focus on product development and innovation.

Alpinion has three core technologies: diagnostic ultrasound; ultrasound transducer technology and therapeutic ultrasound. It entered the therapeutic ultrasound market in 2011 with the introduction of its first high intensity focused ultrasound product, the VIFU 2000. A year earlier, the company opened an office in Seattle, Washington to focus on R&D for the VIFU 2000 and to expand sales in North America. Alpinion also has sales offices in Germany and China.

“Early in our HIFU development, we recognized the need for a preclinical HIFU product to improve research productivity and efficiency,” said Yu-chi Chu, Director of Alpinion US. “Our goal is to provide a flexible turn-key ultrasound image-guided HIFU system that enables scientists to expand their research and improve efficiency in developing future clinical applications.” 

The VIFU-2000

An integrated bench-top system, the VIFU-2000 is designed for small animal research. Its has three major components: 1) a main body with a precision motion control system; 2) a built-in water treatment system and 3) a high efficiency focused ultrasound transducer that is capable of delivering low to high power and can operate in pulsed-wave and continuous-wave sonication modes. The system also has flexible treatment parameters that enable users to evaluate and investigate various ultrasound-mediated drug delivery, thermal or mechanical effects.

The system has an interactive software package with a user-friendly interface and functional graphic features to streamline the development of step-by-step treatment plans. The software package also includes a study report and other key functions. 

 “We designed VIFU 2000 to be user-friendly and to make HIFU more accessible to the greater medical research community.  Our goal is to reach more scientists, doctors and researchers and to encourage   focused ultrasound research in new areas of discipline. Our focus is on providing meaningful innovations that serve the needs of the focused ultrasound research community,” says Chu.

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Written by Ellen C., McKenna