Image-Guided Therapeutic Ultrasound

Period (from – till ): 2 February - 10 April 2026 (BMS_P3_A)

Course coordinator:
Dr.ir. R. Deckers

Course description:
Image-guided therapeutic ultrasound is an early-stage, non-invasive therapeutic technology with the potential to transform the treatment of many medical disorders by using ultrasonic energy to target tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation.

After this course, students will be familiar with theory and practise of various medical applications of image-guided therapeutic ultrasound. In several (guest) lectures the following topics will be covered:
• The physics and the mechanisms of ultrasound for therapeutic applications
• Ultrasound induced bio-effects
• (Medical) imaging techniques to control therapeutic ultrasound interventions
• Overview of medical conditions that can be treated with therapeutic ultrasound

Subsequently, the students will be divided into 4 small groups. Each group will work on a practical assignment to get hands-on experience with image-guided therapeutic ultrasound. Please Note: you must be prepared to travel to TU Twente for max 3 experiment sessions that are part of the group assignment.

Literature/study material used:
handouts

Registration:
You can register for this course via here on the Students' site. The maximum number of participants is 16.
Students from outside the UU or TU/E MI-track can register for this course by sending an email to mix@umcutrecht.nl or via EduXchange. Please include your name, student number, Master’s programme and the course code.
For EduXchange students , in contradiction to what EduXchange says, the course may NOT be full . You can register via an email to mix@umcutrecht.nl.

Examination
The exam consists of 3 parts:

• Report: 50%

• Presentation: 30%

• Active participation: 20%

The weights indicated above are applied to calculate the final mark. To pass the course the final mark must be an unrounded 5.5 or higher.

Mandatory for students in Master’s programme:
no

Optional for students in other GSLS Master’s programme:
yes

Learning goals of this course:
· to understand the physics and the mechanisms of ultrasound for therapy
· to have knowledge on the (medical) imaging techniques to control therapeutic ultrasound interventions
· to have an overview of the medical conditions that can be treated with therapeutic ultrasound
· to be able to design, perform and analyze experiments using image-guided therapeutic ultrasound