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Rick Desper lived with essential tremors for decades before trying a new treatment recommended by his doctor.
Desper said his symptoms began in his teens and worsened over time.
“My hands were not capable of staying steady,” he said. “That made it hard to do things like drinking hot liquids.”
When Dr. Zachary Levine, a board-certified neurosurgeon at The George Washington University Hospital, met Desper he knew immediately MRI-guided focused ultrasound could help Desper transform his life.
“I meet somebody like Rick, and I can see that he has this tremor. And right on the table in front of me and in front of him, and in front of everybody in the room, the tremor stops,” Levine said. “Everybody who’s in the room, especially the medical students and the residents who are there to see this for the first time, always say that was magic. And this is where science technology looks like magic.”
WTOP spoke with Desper and Levine — who specializes in treating movement disorders including essential tremors, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia and epilepsy — for our 2026 Get on Top of Your Health series about how this new procedure can help people with essential tremor and other conditions.
Using MRI-guided focused ultrasound to manage essential tremor
Essential tremor is a nervous system condition that causes rhythmic shaking, leading to difficulties with daily tasks.
For instance, Desper shared that he previously had difficulty writing his own name.
“I basically gave up on having a consistent signature, like I just waved my hand with the pen, and there’d be some kind of blob on the paper,” he said.
In the past, treating tremors required opening the skull and placing probes deep in the brain. The new technology is much less invasive. MRI-guided focused ultrasound is the marriage of MRI scans and ultrasounds to conduct an incisionless operation, Levine said.
“With this new procedure, we’re able to do so without making an incision, without making any holes in anything, allowing the ultrasound to penetrate through the skull,” he said. “We aim the ultrasound at a specific target … and when we hit that area with ultrasound, we can stop the symptoms.”
The treatment is still relatively new.
“We’ve only recorded five years of ongoing data of the same patient population,” Levine said. “The tremor is reduced by an average of about 73% in every patient for at least five years. So that’s our current durability.”
The MRI-guided focused ultrasound procedure
Before treatment, patients undergo imaging and screening to confirm they’re good candidates. Patients remain awake for the procedure.
“It’s mostly boring just sitting there waiting for something to happen, and then when something happens, it’s like, oh, exciting,” Desper said.
He noticed a difference right away.
“It was fantastic,” Desper said. “This thing has just been an albatross on my health for decades. It’s now just not there anymore. So it’s great.”
He can now sign his name and hold hot liquids.
“Also, in terms of just meeting people like strangers, I have a lot more confidence,” Desper said.
He wants other patients to know there is hope.
“There is a modern treatment that can help you deal with it. And suddenly, this condition that I’ve had for decades is just not there anymore,” Desper said. “It’s life changing.”
Treating other movement disorders with MRI-guided focused ultrasound
“The vast majority of people who come to see me with the essential tremor and Parkingson’s disease are candidates for this,” Levine said. “It’s something you should at least look into.”
GW Hospital stays current on emerging health technology, including those that use artificial intelligence (AI).
“We use virtual reality and augmented reality during surgery,” Levine said. “The George Washington University Hospital has an augmented reality program where the surgeons can actually wear goggles during the procedure and see their way through the brain or the spine to get to the target of what they’re trying to achieve.”
He said AI can assist doctors in making surgeries safer. Patients are also turning to AI tools.
“A lot of my patients come to me with their MRIs or CT scans or reports fed into AI,” he said. “I always tell them, I’m glad you brought this here. Let’s go through this together and understand that the human part of this is that I have to make judgment calls based on benefit and risk.”
Overall, Levine said he’s interested in putting patients first. He’s thankful for the opportunity to see how the new MRI procedure is helping Desper long term.
“I see the gratitude, and it’s why one goes into medicine,” he said.
Learn more now about services and care available at The George Washington Hospital Neurosciences Institute. And discover more ways to get on top of your health on WTOP.
