STORY / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Dr Liv Hatle’s pioneering work in ultrasound saves lives 40 years on
- Published 8 March 2023; updated 25 March 2026; estimated reading time 4 minutes. The article profiles Norwegian cardiologist and professor Liv Hatle (1936–2023), whose clinical work helped establish Doppler ultrasound methods for measuring cardiac and vascular blood flow that remain routine in cardiac diagnosis.
- In the 1970s, Hatle worked with Norwegian Institute of Technology professor Bjørn Angelsen, developer of the Pulsed Echo Doppler Flowmeter (PEDOF), which used the Doppler effect to estimate blood-flow speed and direction. Hatle began clinical testing at Trondheim Regional Hospital (now St Olav’s Hospital) in 1976. Since the prototype lacked imaging to guide the examination, she derived diagnostic parameters from the signal data to assess heart-pump function and investigate valve disorders and other cardiac conditions without invasive catheterisation. The article stresses her patient-centred clinical practice alongside research.
- By the late 1970s clinicians travelled to Trondheim to learn the technique. Hatle taught internationally, including as a visiting professor at Stanford and Mayo Clinic and at institutions in Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Sweden and Texas; she also led adult cardiology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Saudi Arabia for more than four years. She and Angelsen co-authored a Doppler ultrasound textbook used in medical education.
- Hatle and Angelsen partnered with Horten medical-device company Vingmed, which launched a modified PEDOF in 1979 as its first Norwegian product. GE acquired Vingmed in 1998; the company became GE Vingmed Ultrasound. The article attributes roughly 90 million procedures in more than 150 countries annually to the firm’s products, citing a former GE Healthcare executive. It says Hatle’s non-invasive echocardiography methods replaced many riskier diagnostic catheter procedures and are now used in tens of thousands of daily examinations worldwide.
- The article connects Hatle’s clinical validation to Norwegian medical-device innovation, naming former PEDOF prototype students Kjell Kristoffersen (chief engineer at GE Ultrasound) and Arne Grip (founder of Medistim). It says Hatle’s combination of research, patient care, testing and commercialisation was central to the method’s international adoption.
- Written by Leah Anderson on behalf of EXACT-Therapeutics, Innovation Norway, Norway Health Tech and Investinor; part of the series “The global reach of Norwegian ultrasound innovation.” Series links include articles on Bjørn Angelsen, commercialising a prototype, a medical-ultrasound startup, ultrasound contrast media, microbubbles and drug delivery. Contact listed for story submissions: Masha Strømme, Masha@exact-tx.com. References include a 2004 Norwegian medical journal profile, Hatle and Angelsen’s 1982/1985 textbook, and a quote from former GE Healthcare executive Anders Wold.