Pioneering Patients Tell the World About Their Focused Ultrasound Treatment

Published:

Many of the 15 patients who participated in the Focused Ultrasound Foundation-funded pilot essential tremor study at the University of Virginia have stepped forward to share their story with the news media. By doing so, they have added a new dimension to the role patient participants play in advancing a promising new medical technology. Their courage and their stories have touched people around the world and spurred interest in using noninvasive sound waves instead of scalpels to treat movement disorders.

Here’s a recap of the “First Fifteen’” story-sharing activities:

Williams Billy1Patient #1: Billy R. Williams

Video and broadcast interviews:

UVA performs world’s first focused ultrasound treatment for essential tremor (Produced by WCVE Public Radio, March 10, 2011)
One-year follow up with Billy Williams (Produced by Focused Ultrasound Foundation, May 2012)
Interview with Billy R. Williams, world’s first essential tremor patient treated with MR-guided focused ultrasound (Produced by Focused Ultrasound Foundation, April 2011)
Treating tremors with ultrasound (Produced by Discoveries and Breakthroughs in Science, August 2011)

News stories:

U.Va. uses scalpel-free brain surgery to treat tremor (Richmond Times Dispatch, March 11, 2011)
Early results of essential tremor study promising (Richmond Times Dispatch, June 13, 2011)
Soundwaves as effective as brain surgery at treating essential tremor, trial finds (Science Blog, May 20, 2012)

G. German and familyPatient # 2: Glenn German

Broadcast interview:

UVa using scalpel-free brain surgery to treat tremors (Produced by Charlottesville Newsplex, April 19, 2012)Broadcast interview:

News interviews:

Patients, doctors discuss lives changed by new UVA treatment (The Daily Progress, April 21, 2013)
Brain surgery that’s not invasive (Boston Globe, April 23, 2012)

 

 

Lively Arthur 32Patient #3: Arthur Lively

News interviews:

Patients, doctors discuss lives changed by new UVA treatment (The Daily Progress, April 21, 2013)

 

 

 

 

John WattersonPatient #5: John Watterson

Video and broadcast interviews:

Interview with John and Yvonne Watterson: Essential tremor patient treated with MR-guided focused ultrasound (Produced by Focused Ultrasound Foundation, XX 2011)
UVA Pioneers a Way to Stop Tremors (Produced by WVTF Public Radio, September 20, 2011

News stories:

Focused Ultrasound – The Most Important Innovation Since the Scalpel (UVA Innovation, May 2012)
Focused ultrasound revolutionizes brain surgery (UVA School of Medicine Vitals, Fall 2012)

PowerPoint presentation:

Personal Experience of a Focused Ultrasound Treatment Patient – John Watterson

 

Batten Foundation 036AA ppPatient # 10: Phyllis Walker

Broadcast interview:

Focused ultrasound treatment for essential tremor (Produced by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, January 23, 2012)

News story:

Scalpel-free surgery (The Jerusalem Report, August 13, 2012)

 

 

walkerPatient # 13: Dot Highberg

Broadcast interviews:

Patients’ Tremors Stopped After New Non-Invasive, Pain-Free Brain Surgery (Produced by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, January 23, 2012)

 

 

 

Oregon2012 3Patient #15: Susan Stephens

News stories:

Featured in the Focused Ultrasound Foundation Winter 2013 Progress Report

Written by Ellen C., McKenna