Key Points
- Media attention for focused ultrasound has increased from 112 annual mentions in 2009 to more than 40,000 in 2025.
- As the Foundation marks its 20th anniversary, this blog looks at this steep rise in coverage and what it means for the field.
Over the past two decades, focused ultrasound has evolved from a little-known medical innovation into a transformative technology attracting worldwide attention — a trajectory reflected in the dramatic growth and evolution of its media coverage.
In the early days of the Foundation, awareness of the technology was low, and related news coverage was sparse. Articles about focused ultrasound were limited to medical journals, trade publications, or local stories introducing a pioneering — but still largely unfamiliar and misunderstood — technology.
Today, as its scientific and clinical significance grows, focused ultrasound is regularly featured in national and international consumer media: Researchers are reporting important discoveries, regulators are authorizing new indications, clinicians are expanding treatment options, and a growing number of patients are sharing life-changing outcomes. The shifting nature of the news coverage reflects the evolution of the field itself: Increasingly, the story is no longer what focused ultrasound might accomplish, but what it is accomplishing today.
Dramatic Rise in Media Coverage
In 2009, the first year the Foundation tracked media mentions, focused ultrasound was referenced just 112 times. By 2025, that number had climbed to more than 40,000 — roughly 350 times the level recorded 16 years earlier. That trajectory has continued in 2026, with high-profile coverage during the first half of the year, including actor Terry Crews’ wife, Rebecca King Crews, sharing her focused ultrasound story on Today and in People, and British TV personality Jeremy Clarkson detailing his HIFU treatment for prostate cancer. The growth is increasingly global, too. While US outlets still account for most of the coverage tracked by the Foundation, the past 12 months have generated more than 5,700 mentions in Asia and more than 1,900 in Europe — nearly 7,600 mentions across those two regions alone.
The Secret is Out
Over the years, many of the stories told by the media have shifted from promise to progress. In 2011, TIME magazine named focused ultrasound one of the year’s 50 most inspired ideas, innovations and revolutions, prompting Foundation Founder and Chairman Neal Kassell, MD, to note: “We can finally stop calling it ‘medicine’s best kept secret’ because the secret is out.” In those early years, stories often focused on the promise of the technology and whether it might someday change medicine. Today, the coverage increasingly reflects tangible progress: clinical trial results, regulatory milestones, expanding treatment availability, industry growth, and patients whose lives are being changed by the technology.
The shift is particularly striking when comparing coverage of the same diseases across time. In 2009, UroToday reported that focused ultrasound “may be” a promising treatment for prostate cancer, based on an Italian study of 163 patients. By July 2026, the BBC was reporting on positive outcomes among nearly 2,900 prostate cancer patients treated with focused ultrasound. In less than two decades, the story had shifted from early promise in a relatively small study to long-term safety data and experience involving thousands of patients.
Essential tremor offers an equally striking comparison. In 2011, the Richmond Times-Dispatch told the story of the first patient treated with focused ultrasound for essential tremor in a clinical trial at the University of Virginia, noting researchers’ hope that the procedure might one day receive US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Fifteen years later, CBS News featured the 100th patient treated at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island. What was once remarkable because a first patient was being treated experimentally is now remarkable for a different reason: An FDA-approved treatment is being offered routinely at medical centers across the country.
The Momentum Continues
That decades-long trajectory continues today. Recent coverage reflects a field advancing on multiple fronts, from patients benefiting from focused ultrasound treatments to researchers exploring entirely new applications for the technology. Below are some notable stories and high-impact media mentions that brought this progress to audiences in recent weeks.
Targeted Prostate Cancer Treatment Cuts Risk of Side Effects, Study Suggests
The BBC reported ongoing research involving nearly 2,900 prostate cancer patients. Long-term cancer control was achieved with focal therapy — focused ultrasound or cryotherapy — while reducing urinary and sexual side effects. The findings also drew coverage from Sky News, The Independent, and other outlets.
Parkinson’s Patient’s Yearslong Tremor Vanishes Within Minutes of New Ultrasound Treatment
Fox News shared the story of Bud Leavell, a 72-year-old Texas Air Force veteran whose debilitating tremor was abated by focused ultrasound, allowing him to return to his hobby of restoring antique radios.
Focused Ultrasound vs DBS for Parkinson’s Disease: What New Bilateral Data Tells Us
NeurologyLive explored new data on staged bilateral focused ultrasound for Parkinson’s disease, including how the approach compares with deep brain stimulation (DBS) and which patients might benefit.
Her Brain Was Broken. It Was Fixed With Sound — Not a Scalpel
Wired offered an in-depth look at focused ultrasound for addiction through the story of a woman battling substance use disorder and a promising clinical trial at West Virginia University.
Pioneering Treatment Saves Identical Twins From Rare Pregnancy Condition
The BBC shared the story of a mother and her identical twins whose lives were changed by an experimental focused ultrasound treatment for twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, offering a glimpse at a potentially important new application for the technology.
Looking Ahead
From 112 media mentions in 2009 to tens of thousands today, the growth in coverage tells a larger story about the progress of focused ultrasound itself. Twenty years into the Foundation’s work to accelerate the field, focused ultrasound is no longer medicine’s “best kept secret.” And as the technology continues to advance, there will be much more of the story to tell.
Stay in the Loop
Readers can stay up to date with the latest media coverage by subscribing to the Foundation’s News Digest, a curated collection of focused ultrasound news delivered twice weekly.
You can also hear from people across the focused ultrasound community on our Curing With Sound podcast, and subscribe to the Foundation’s newsletter (currently issued three times a month) for patient stories, research milestones, clinical trial updates, industry news, and more.
Please also consider joining the Foundation and the global focused ultrasound community as we mark two decades of progress at Celebrating Focused Ultrasound: The Future Is Now, November 11-13, in McLean, Virginia.
Dave Hendrick is the Foundation’s senior media relations manager. He can be reached at dhendrick@fusfoundation.org.