An Advanced Study Institute on Ultrasonics in Medical Diagnosis was held in Milan, Italy, from 10 to 15 June 1974. This ASI was of a short five-day duration and limited to cardiac diagnosis by ultra sound only. Since that time, the field of diagnostic imaging in medicine has literally exploded with new and improved means of medical diagnosis such as computed tomography, microwaves, nuclear magnetic resonance and other sophisticated techniques. These developments have enabled medical practitioners to make diagnoses with a minimum of danger to the patient, and a maximum of accuracy never before...

Several formerly independent trends including the in creasing rate of technological change, the demand for greater efficiency and productivity in R&D and innovation, and the need for applying technology to the solution of pressing social and economic problems have recently begun to reinforce each other resulting in renewed interest in technology trans fer activities and research. The proliferation of research efforts in the U. S. and Western Europe, increased corporate and governmental efforts to develop mechanisms and incentives for transfer and the growing closeness between transfer and...