ISTU Meeting Gave Added Emphasis to Clinical Studies

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Held in Shanghai, China from May 12-15, the 2013 meeting of the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU) drew about 200 attendees and devoted an entire day to clinical presentations, indicating the society’s increasing emphasis on patient applications of therapeutic ultrasound.

Feng Wu, MD, PhD received the 2013 Fry Award, which is given annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to therapeutic ultrasound. Wu is a HIFU Consultant and Senior Clinical Scientist at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Other notable highlights included:

• Strong participation by the Chinese research and clinical community. “We met a lot of Chinese investigators and companies for the first time,” reported the Foundation’s Director of Global Business Development Heather Huff Simonin. “Although very engaged in advancing focused ultrasound technology, they do not attend meetings in the U.S. or Europe.” She added that connecting with Chinese manufacturers is part of the Collaborative Research Network initiative, through which the Foundation builds awareness and tracks focused ultrasound research and commercialization activities around the world.

• “Several vendor presentations really stood out,” reports the Foundation’s Medical Director Arik Hananel, MD. “Kona Medical showed promising results and is initiating its third hypertension study, this time using a completely non-invasive renal denervation method,” he noted. “Siemens presented an MR add-on that has a high number of elements, (18,000), and could be used for liver treatments.”