Therapeutic or focused ultrasound began being applied to neurologic conditions less than a decade ago, but its potential in a wide spectrum of brain applications is high.

In today’s podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Neal Kassell, chair and founder of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation and previously a neurosurgeon, who created the Foundation in 2006 to improve the lives of millions of people with serious medical disorders by accelerating the development and adoption of focused ultrasound.

Focus ultrasound (FUS) has the potential to revolutionise therapy to the same degree that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning revolutionised diagnosis, says Kassell. The effect of the treatment can be observed as it is being administered in real time by using such imaging; it is image-guided therapy.

Of the 180 indications in various stages of development using FUS, the number of regulatory approvals and reimbursements is increasing. Dialogue has shifted from ‘if’ to ‘when’ and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation works to make that when ‘now’. And it all begins with evidence, evidence come from research.

A digital health passport is an app, or online certification, that displays a traveller’s health or vaccination record. It can save lives, on both private and public levels.

In today’s pharmaphorum podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Matt Hollingsworth, co-founder and CEO of Carta Healthcare, a company seeking to support the healthcare data registry market by transforming a previously manual clinical data abstraction process.

Hollingsworth discusses his own, very personal experiences that led to Carta Healthcare’s foundation and progressed its work, as well as the comfort that can be provided patients with chronic diseases – including congenital heart defects – with digital health passports, offering an information safety net for them whilst travelling, circumventing the need to carry veritable folders full of printed health records.

Diving into the what’s what of EHRs, AI’s role in digital health passports, and the pros and cons of a generally digital future, technology is nevertheless very much in our health futures, explains Hollingsworth.

The pandemic served as a catalyst for a revolution in genomic surveillance for tracking pathogens. The technology proved vital in aiding understanding of the evolution of and spread of virus in real time to inform public health measures, ultimately accelerating drug and vaccine development.

In today’s podcast, web editor Nicole Raleigh speaks with Dr Evan Floden, CEO and co-founder of Seqera, a data orchestration and genomics analysis company, about barriers of entry to genomic surveillance in public health labs and how these can be lowered to support future bioinformaticians, aiding acceleration and quality and accuracy in R&D.