MIT researchers have developed a portable ultrasound system aimed at making breast cancer screening more accessible and frequent. The new system features a backing layer added to the ultrasound transducer that improves image resolution and reduces noise, plus an adaptive beamforming algorithm that compensates for varying sound speeds across tissue types, yielding up to 10% resolution improvement. A computer-vision-based user interface guides non-expert users to position the probe correctly, enabling consistent longitudinal monitoring. In trials, untrained volunteers successfully located embedded targets at higher rates than with traditional probes. The team plans to develop a smartphone-compatible version and is exploring commercialization, with potential applications beyond breast cancer to ovarian cancer, endometriosis, and fetal monitoring.
