During this year's Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association, one rather interesting State-of-the-Art Lecture delivered on May 7, 2013 by Mike Bailey, Senior Principal Engineer of the Center for Industrial and Medical Ultrasound (CIMU) department of the Applied Physics Laboratory in the University of Washington, showed the ability to PUSH urinary stones using focused bursts of ultrasound directed in the opposite end from where you want the stone to move.
He actually showed videos of stones hopping to and fro experimentally in vitro and in vivo in pig kidneys.
Urologists will have to learn how to image the kidney stone and how to push it with the device.

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Stone in the upper calyx before pushing.
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| Upper calyx stone is jumping to the pelvis due to ultrasound. |
The video demonstrations he showed were actually quite compelling since every Urologist knows the frustration of having the ability to pulverise urinary stones with Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) but not able to extract the stones, as opposed to Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy (PCNL) or Ureteroscopy with Stone Basket Extraction (SBE).
My only concern with this technology is the learning curve for this technology. Unlike in imaging ultrasound, you merely need to hold the probe in a position that allows you to see the stone. For SonoMotion, which is probably what this technology will eventually be called, you need to position your probe manually at the side of the stone opposite to the direction you want it to go. Thus, this requires a good knowledge of the detailed anatomy of the kidney, as well as the specific anatomy of a the patient's kidney. In my view, this is easier said than done. That being said, this technology should be closely followed by Urologists with an interest in ESWL.
The State-of-the-Art Lecture presented in the AUA can be viewed here.
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