Department of Medical Physics
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Timothy J. Hall

Credentials: PhD

Position title: Professor, Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering

Email: tjhall@wisc.edu

Phone: 608-265-9459

Address:
1153 WIMR
UW-Medical Physics, Ultrasound Imaging
Madison, WI 53705

  • Director of the Quantitative Ultrasound Lab
  • Director of the Custom Ultrasound Phantom Lab
  • Co-Director, Ultrasound Scanning Resource (part of the WIMR Imaging Facility)

Timothy Hall is a primary advisor in the Department of Medical Physics.

Education

BA (Physics) University of Michigan-Flint
MS, Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin
PhD (Medical Physics) University of Wisconsin-Madison

Department Affilations

Medical Physics

Biomedical Engineering

Positions

  • 1988 – 1989 Research Instructor, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
  • 1989 – 1991 Instructor, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
  • 1991 – 1995 Assistant Professor, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
  • 1995 – 2000 Associate Professor, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
  • 1999 – 2002 Director, Division of Image Science and Technology, Radiology Department, University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), Kansas City, KS
  • 1999 – 2002 (Associate) Professor, Department of Physiology, KUMC, Kansas City, KS
  • 2000 – 2002 Professor, Department of Radiology, KUMC, Kansas City, KS
  • 2003 – present Professor, Medical Physics Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
  • 2017 – 2019 Vice Chair for the Faculty, Medical Physics Department
  • 2020 – present Interim Chair, Medical Physics Department

Research Interests

  • Acoustic scattering
  • Tissue elasticity
  • Breast imaging
  • Cervical assessment
  • Ultrasound phantom development

Our work involves developing quantitative methods in medical ultrasound. Within that effort are developments of experimental methods for estimating specific parameters (such as the acoustic backscatter coefficient (to quantify acoustic scattering on an absolute scale), effective scatterer size (to describe the tissue microstructure), and the nonlinear elastic modulus (to describe the tissue stiffness on an absolute scale)). Also within that effort are developments of test objects with known material properties (phantoms) that can be used to evaluate performance of these quantitative techniques, and performance descriptors that provide metrics to compare performance. The effort also involves integration of these methods into clinical imaging systems and tests in animal models, clinical trials in human subjects, and observer performance studies to test efficacy.

Our work involves a close collaboration with Siemens Medical Solutions Ultrasound Division and Siemens Corporate Research. That collaboration gives us access to their clinical imaging systems at the same level as their research and development engineers.

We are funded by the NIH to investigate breast tissue properties with ultrasound. A parallel effort investigates uterine cervix assessment associated with pre-term birth and predicting successful post-date inductions.

Awards and Honors

  • 1983 – A.B. in Physics Summa Cum Laude, University of Michigan-Flint
  • 1983 – Maize and Blue Scholar, University of Michigan
  • 1985 – National Research Service Awards, University of Wisconin/National Institutes of Health (1985-1988)
  • 1991 – Bronze Medal, American Roentgen Ray Society
  • 1995 – Best Paper of the Year, Ultrasound In Medicine and Biology
  • 2002 – Cum Laude Award, Radiological Society of North America
  • 2009 – Fellow, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine

Publications

  • Hall TJ, Madsen EL, Zagzebski JA, Boote EJ. Accurate depth-independent determination of acoustic backscatter coefficients with focused transducers.  J Acoust Soc Am 85(6):2410-2416, 1989.
  • Insana MF, Hall TJ. Parametric ultrasound imaging from backscatter coefficient measurements: Image formation and interpretation.  Ultrason Imaging 12(4):245-267, 1990.
  • Insana MF, Hall TJ. Characterizing the microstructure of random media using ultrasound.  Phys Med Biol 35(10):1373-1386, 1990.
  • Insana MF, Hall TJ, Fishback JL. Identifying acoustic scattering sources in normal renal parenchyma from the anisotropy in acoustic properties.  Ultrasound Med Biol 17(6):613-626, 1991.
  • Insana MF, Hall TJ, Wood JG, Yan ZY. Renal ultrasound using parametric imaging techniques to detect changes in microstructure and function.  Invest Radiol 28(8):720-725, 1993.
  • Insana MF, Hall TJ. Visual detection efficiency in ultrasonic imaging:  A framework for objective assessment of image quality. J Acoust Soc Am 95(4):2081-2090, 1994.
  • Wear KA, Garra BS, Hall TJ: Measurements of ultrasonic backscatter coefficients in human liver and kidney in vivo. J Acoust Soc Am 98(4):1852-1857, 1995.
  • Hall TJ, Insana MF, Harrison LA, Cox GG: Ultrasonic measurement of glomerular diameters in normal adult humans. Ultrasound Med Biol 22(8):987-997, 1996.
  • Hall TJ, Bilgen M, Insana MF, Krouskop TA: Phantom materials for elastography. IEEE Trans Ultrason, Ferroelec, Freq Contr (UFFC) 44(6): 1355-1365, 1997.
  • Hall TJ, Zhu Y, and Spalding CS. In vivo real-time freehand palpation imaging, Ultrasound Med Biol 29(3): 427—35, 2003.
  • Burnside ES, Hall TJ, Sommer AM, Hesley GK, Sisney GA, Svensson WE, Fine JP, Jiang J, Hangiandreou NJ,Using Ultrasound Strain Imaging to Distinguish Benign and Malignant Solid Breast Masses, Radiology 245(2):401-410, 2007.
  • Oberai AA, Gokhale NH, Goenezen S, Barbone PE, Hall TJ, Sommer AM, Jiang J. Linear and nonlinear elasticity imaging of soft tissue in vivo: demonstration of feasibility, Physics Med Biol 54(5): 1191-1207, 2009.
  • Jiang J and Hall TJ, A generalized speckle tracking algorithm for ultrasonic strain imaging using dynamic programming, Ultrasound Med Biol 35(11):1863-1879, 2009.
  • Fisher TG, Hall TJ, Panda S, Richards MS, Barbone PE, Jiang J, Resnick J, Barnes S. Volumetric Elasticity Imaging with a 2-D CMUT Array, Ultrasound Med Biol 36(6):978-90, 2010.
  • Pavan TZ, Madsen EL, Frank GR, Carneiro AAO, and Hall TJ. Nonlinear elastic behavior of phantom materials for elastography, Phys Med Biol, 7;55(9):2679-92, 2010.
  • Anderson JJ, Herd MT, King MR, Haak A, Hafez ZT, Song J, Oelze ML, Madsen EL, Zagzebski JA, Ultrasonic Imaging 32:48-64, 2010.
  • Feltovich H, Nam K and Hall TJ. Quantitative ultrasound assessment of cervical microstructure, Ultrasonic Imaging 32:33-47, 2010.
  • Herd MT, Hall TJ, Jiang J and Zagzebski JA. Improving the statistics of quantitative ultrasound techniques with deformation compounding, Ultrasound Med Biol Biol 37(12): 2066-2074, 2011.
  • Hall TJ, Barbone P, Oberai AA, Jiang J, Dord JF, Goenezen S, Fisher TG. Recent results in nonlinear strain and modulus imaging. Current Medical Imaging Reviews 7(4):313-327, 2011.
  • Sarvazyan A, Hall TJ, Urban MW, Fatemi M, Aglyamov SR, Garra BS. An overview of elastography – An emerging branch of medical imaging, Current Medical Imaging Reviews 7(4):255-282, 2011.
  • Nam K, Zagzebski JA and Hall TJ. Simultaneous backscatter and attenuation estimation using a least squares method with constraints, Ultrasound Med Biol.37(12): 2096-2104, 2011.
  • Reusch LM, Feltovich H, Carlson LC, Hall G, Campagnola PJ, Eliceiri KW, Hall TJ. Nonlinear Optical Microscopy and Ultrasound Imaging of Human Cervical Structure. J Biomed Optics 18(3): 2013.
  • Rosado-Mendez IM, Zagzebski JA, and Hall TJ. Task-Oriented Comparison of Power Spectral Density Estimation Methods for Quantifying Acoustic Attenuation in Diagnostic Ultrasound Using a Reference Phantom Method. Ultrasonic Imaging 35(3):214-234, 2013.
  • Carlson LC, Feltovich H, Palmeri ML, Dahl JJ, Del Rio AM, Hall TJ, Estimation of shear wave speed in the human uterine cervix. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 43( 4): 452–458, 2014
  • Rosado-Mendez IM, Drehfal LC, Zagzebski JA, Hall TJ. Analysis of coherent and diffuse scattering using a reference phantom. IEEE Trans Ultrason, Ferroelec, Freq Cont 2016 Sep;63(9):1306-20.
  • Rosado-Mendez IM, Palmeri ML, Drehfal LC, Guerrero QW, Simmons H, Feltovich H, Hall TJ. Assessment of Structural Heterogeneity and Viscosity in the Cervix Using Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging: Initial Results from a Rhesus Macaque Model. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2017 43(4):790-803.
  • Guerrero QW, Fan L, Brunkey S, Milkowski A, Hall TJ. Power Spectrum Consistency Among Systems and Transducers. Ultrasound Med Biol. 2018, 44(11):2358-2370
  • Rosado-Mendez IM, Noguchi KK, Castañeda-Martinez L, KirvassilisG, Wang, SH, Manzella F, Swiney BS, Masuoka K, Capuano S, Brunner, K, Crosno K, Guerrero QW, Whitson H, Brambrink A, Simmons HS, Mejia AF, Zagzebski JA, Hall TJ, Ikonomidou C, Quantitative ultrasound and apoptotic death in the neonatal primate brain, Neurobiology of Disease. 2019 Jul;127:554-562. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2019.03.032
  • Santoso AP, Vink JY, Gallos G, Feltovich H, Hall TJ. Quantitative ultrasound detects smooth muscle activity at the cervical internal os in vitro. Ultrasound Med Biol 2020 Jan;46(1):149-155. doi: 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2019.08.020. Epub 2019 Oct 24. PMCID: PMC6879854
  • Pinkert MA, Simmons ZJ, Niemeier RC, Dai B, Woods LB, Hall TJ, Campagnola PJ, Rogers JD, Eliceiri KW. A platform for quantitative multiscale imaging of tissue composition. J Biomed Optic Express, accepted Mar.2020.
  • Pinkert MA, Cox BL, Dai B, Hall TJ, Campagnola PJ, Rogers JD, Eliceiri KW.3D-printed registration phantom for combined ultrasound and optical imaging of biological tissues. Ultrasound Med Biol. accepted Mar 2020.

Patents

  • US Patent # 6,277,074 B1 issued 2001.08.21, Method and apparatus for motion estimation within biological tissue
  • US Patent # 6,508,768 B1 issued 2003.01.21, Ultrasonic elasticity imaging
  • US Patent # 7,632,231 B2 issued 2009.12.15, Ultrasonic strain imaging device and method providing parallel displacement processing
  • US Patent # 8,417,475 B2 issued 2013.04.09 Elasticity imaging device with improved characterization of seed displacement calculations
  • US Patent # 8,727,986 B2 issued 2014.05.20, Method and apparatus for assessing risk of preterm delivery
  • US Patent # 8,920,323 B2 issued 2014.12.30, Coupled Axial and Lateral Displacement Estimation for Elasticity Imaging
  • US Patent # 9,060,709 B2 issued 2015.06.23, Method and apparatus for quantifying organization in collagenous tissue
  • US Patent # 9,078,592 B2 issued 2015.07.14, Ultrasonic strain imaging device with selectable cost-function
  • US Patent # 9389203B2 issued 2016.07.12, Automated ultrasonic elasticity image formation with quality measure

Memberships

  • 1984 – Member, Acoustical Society of America
  • 1988 – Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
  • 1994 – Member, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
  • 1995 – 1998 Ultrasound Committee Chair; Science Council Member; Liaison to RSNA, AAPM
  • 2001 – Fellow, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
  • 2012 – Radiological Society of North America’s (RSNA) Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance (QIBA)
    • 2012 – 2019 Steering Committee Member; Chair of Ultrasound Coordinating Committee; Co-Chair of Shear Wave Speed Biomarker Committee,
    • 2019 – present Vice-Chair QIBA Steering Committee