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Ultrasound paper nominated for IPEM Roberts Prize

The 254 elements distributed on the HIFU transducer’s surface
The 254 elements distributed on the HIFU
transducer's surface (Image courtesy of
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust)

A collaborative paper between NPL, Imperial College London, and the Andreev Acoustics Institute (Moscow) was one of just 10 papers selected from approximately 600 put forward for the prestigious 2009 IPEM Roberts Prize.

The prize is for the best paper published in the journal Physics in Medicine and Biology in 2009 and will be awarded at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Institute for Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM) in September 2010.

The paper ('A random phased array device for delivery of high intensity focused ultrasound' by J W Hand, A Shaw, N Sadhoo, S Rajagopal, R J Dickinson and L R Gavrilov; published in Phys. Med. Biol. 54, pp5675-5693, 2009) describes the evaluation of a HIFU device. The device is a phased array with 254 randomly distributed elements which generate high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).

HIFU is a non-invasive technique which can destroy cancers inside the body, without surgery.

The device investigated in the paper generates multiple HIFU beams that can simultaneously attack different parts of a cancer, without harming the surrounding healthy tissue. This should enable faster treatment without sacrificing safety.

Adam Shaw, Neelaksh Sadhoo and Srinath Rajagopal from NPL's Acoustics Group performed the characterisation of the device. One of the novel features of the work was the research team's use of an infra-red camera that quickly assessed the device's large number of intensity distributions by measuring temperature changes on the surface of a target.

The research team confirmed their theoretical predictions of the device's intensity distribution through actual measurements. To complete this proof of principle study, the team used a tissue substitute to confirm that the device successfully produces the localised heating required to destroy cancers.

NPL's contribution to this paper was funded by the National Measurement Office and Cancer Research UK.

Contact: Adam Shaw

IPEM Roberts Prize winner announced: Read article on the IOP website

Find out more about NPL's work in Acoustics and Healthcare

Published 6th August 2010

Last Updated: 1 Feb 2011
Created: 1 Feb 2011

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