# A Fully Open and Generalizable Foundation Model for Ultrasound Clinical Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.11752 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11752/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 32 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Sep 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01497/) (2015)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [DINO: DETR with Improved DeNoising Anchor Boxes for End-to-End Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.03605/) (2022)
- [SimMIM: A Simple Framework for Masked Image Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09886/) (2021)
- [Swin UNETR: Swin Transformers for Semantic Segmentation of Brain Tumors in MRI Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.01266/) (2022)
- [EnlightenGAN: Deep Light Enhancement without Paired Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.06972/) (2019)
- [Deep Learning for Segmentation using an Open Large-Scale Dataset in 2D Echocardiography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.06948/) (2019)
- [USFM: A Universal Ultrasound Foundation Model Generalized to Tasks and Organs towards Label Efficient Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.00153/) (2023)
- [A Multimodal Vision Foundation Model for Clinical Dermatology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.15038/) (2024)
- [UltraSam: A Foundation Model for Ultrasound using Large Open-Access Segmentation Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16222/) (2024)
- [Ultrasound Report Generation with Cross-Modality Feature Alignment via Unsupervised Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00644/) (2024)
- [Force Sensing Guided Artery-Vein Segmentation via Sequential Ultrasound Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21394/) (2024)
- [A benchmark for 2D foetal brain ultrasound analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17250/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Pretext Matters: An Empirical Study of SSL Methods in Medical Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.22649/) (2026)
- [UMind-VL: A Generalist Ultrasound Vision-Language Model for Unified Grounded Perception and Comprehensive Interpretation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22256/) (2025)
- [US-JEPA: A Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture for Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19322/) (2026)
- [Ultrasound Vision-Language Alignment via Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.02126/) (2026)
- [Synergistic Foundation Models for Semi-Supervised Fetal Cardiac Ultrasound Analysis: SAM-Med2D Boundary Refinement and DINOv3 Semantic Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.19799/) (2026)
- [Towards Real-World Ultrasound Understanding: Large Vision-Language Models from Multi-Image Examinations with Long-Form Reports](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01908/) (2026)
- [Cross-Modal Ultrasound-MRI Learning for Fetal Brain Ventricular Volumetry and Abnormality Screening](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.14763/) (2026)
- [UltraBench 2: Towards Robust Evaluation of Vision Foundation Models on Ultrasound](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.28610/) (2026)
- [Med-RADIO: Reducing All Medical Domains Into One via Multi-Teacher Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37682/) (2026)
- [WASP: Weakly Aligned Spatiotemporal Pairs for Fetal Brain MRI-Ultrasound Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04601/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Artificial intelligence (AI) that can effectively learn ultrasound representations by integrating multi-source data holds significant promise for advancing clinical care. However, the scarcity of large labeled datasets in real-world clinical environments and the limited generalizability of task-specific models have hindered the development of generalizable clinical AI models for ultrasound applications. In this study, we present EchoCare, a novel ultrasound foundation model for generalist clinical use, developed via self-supervised learning on our curated, publicly available, large-scale dataset EchoCareData. EchoCareData comprises 4.5 million ultrasound images, sourced from over 23 countries across 5 continents and acquired via a diverse range of distinct imaging devices, thus encompassing global cohorts that are multi-center, multi-device, and multi-ethnic. Unlike prior studies that adopt off-the-shelf vision foundation model architectures, we introduce a hierarchical classifier into EchoCare to enable joint learning of pixel-level and representation-level features, capturing both global anatomical contexts and local ultrasound characteristics. With minimal training, EchoCare outperforms state-of-the-art comparison models across 10 representative ultrasound benchmarks of varying diagnostic difficulties, spanning disease diagnosis, lesion segmentation, organ detection, landmark prediction, quantitative regression, imaging enhancement and report generation. The code and pretrained model are publicly released, rendering EchoCare accessible for fine-tuning and local adaptation, supporting extensibility to additional applications. EchoCare provides a fully open and generalizable foundation model to boost the development of AI technologies for diverse clinical ultrasound applications.