The ultrasound scanner of the future?

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 60, No. 9, November 2018, Pages 435,464 News

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed an ultrasound transducer that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners to as little as $100. The patent-pending innovation is portable, wearable, and can be powered by a smartphone (it needs just 10 volts to operate). The transducer also has the potential to be built into a flexible material that can be wrapped around the body for easier scanning and more detailed views.

Conventional ultrasound scanners use piezoelectric crystals to create images of the inside of the body and send them to a computer to create sonograms. UBC researchers replaced the piezoelectric crystals with tiny vibrating drums made of polymer resin, called polyCMUTs (polymer capacitive micro-machined ultrasound transducers), which are cheaper to manufacture. Sonograms produced by the UBC device were as sharp as or even more detailed than traditional sonograms.

Researchers will next be developing prototypes and eventually testing the device in clinical applications. The study’s lead author is Carlos Gerardo, a PhD candidate in electrical and computer engineering at UBC. The research, “Fabrication and testing of polymer-based capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducers for medical imaging,” was published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering.

Study lead author Carlos Gerardo holding the new ultrasound transducer that could revolutionize ultrasounds.
Study lead author Carlos Gerardo holding the new ultrasound transducer that could revolutionize ultrasounds.

. The ultrasound scanner of the future?. BCMJ, Vol. 60, No. 9, November, 2018, Page(s) 435,464 - News.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply