The development of MRI-guided focused ultrasound at Brigham & Women’s Hospital

Abstract

The Focused Ultrasound Laboratory was created in the Department of Radiology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in the early 1990’s, when Ferenc Jolesz invited Kullervo Hynynen to join him to collaborate with GE Medical Systems to develop MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound surgery. This collaboration between Dr. Hynynen, an experienced researcher of therapeutic ultrasound, Dr. Jolesz, who developed MRI-guided laser ablation, and the engineers at GE and later InSightec, with their decades of experience developing MRI and ultrasound systems, established a program that over two decades produced important contributions to HIFU. In this talk, Nathan McDannold, the current director of the laboratory, will review the achievements made by the team of researchers, which include the development of the first MRI-guided FUS system, the creation of the first MRI-compatible phased arrays, important contributions to the validation and implantation of MR temperature mapping and thermal dosimetry, the development of an MRI-guided transcranial system, and the discovery that ultrasound and microbubbles can temporarily disrupt the blood–brain barrier. This output of this team, which led to clinical systems that have treated tens of thousands of patients at sites around the world, is an excellent example of how academic research can be to the clinic.