European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB): Call for peace

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has now been raging for over 600 days. Hundreds of thousands of people have already died, not only soldiers, but also women and children, patients in hospitals, mothers with their newborns and old people in nursing homes. Now, an unimaginably brutal terrorist attack by Hamas has cost the lives of so many civilian citizens and visitors to Israel in one day, shattered hopes as not since the Shoah, taken hostages, not only those taken from the territory of Israel, but also its own people, the Palestinian families living in the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands resettled or forced to flee, countless human tragedies, lives senselessly destroyed. All these human lives have the same value, are irreplaceable, independently of age, gender, religion, nation or political belief. Read our full statement here >

EFSUMB on tour .....

The UEG Ultrasound Learning Area at
UEG Week 2023 14-17 October 2023, Copenhagen

Ultrasonography for the Gastroenterologist

 

October brought an important event for the European gastroenterologists and not only – The UEG Week 2023, 14-17 October 2023 Copenhagen. The meeting brought together around 11,000 participants (from whom only 12% online) from 119 countries for 4 days of Gastroenterology and Hepatology scientific sessions, original abstracts presentations, industry symposia, hands on training and other scientific activites.

The Ultrasound Learning Area from UEGW, run in courtesy of EFSUMB and BICUS, promotes the role of a major diagnostic and interventional tool in gastroenterology: clinical ultrasonography in the hands of the gastroenterologist.

This year the Ultrasound Learning Area offered basic and advanced postgraduate courses on ultrasonography, individual hands-on training and special lectures in Gastrointestinal Ultrasound and Multiparametric Ultrasound in Gastroenterology. The programme was designed for both young and senior gastroenterologists, with or without experience in ultrasonography, and also for those with an interest in the new developments in ultrasound based techniques. 

The faculty members, well known European experts in ultrasound, helped the participants of the ULA program to discover the usefulness of ultrasonography in gastroenterological and hepatological pathology and initiated them in the protocol of systematic abdominal ultrasound examination.

 

More than 250 participants took part in the ULA activities during the 4 days of congress and benefited from the theoretical and practical activities from the program that was supported also by the industry sponsors: General Electric Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers and Mindray Medical.

 

Special thanks to the Course Directors Alina Popescu, Timişoara, Romania and Christian Jenssen, Strausberg-Wriezen, Germany.

To view the programme and more images from our time at UEG please visit https://efsumb.org/ueg23/

 

ULTRASCHALL 2023. Mainz, Germany

 

 

Baltic Paediatric Ultrasound School

The Euroson School of Paediatric Ultrasound was held in the beautiful city of Vilnius, Lithuania with 120 participants. 

 

 

Prof Algiradas Tamosiunas welcomed everyone to the course held at the Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos. It was Prof Tamosiunas who brought Lithuania into EFSUMB in 2009. The course was well organised by Andrius Cekuolis and Arturas Samuilis with lectures from Profs Paul Sidhu, Wojciech Kosiak from EFSUMB, Joanna Kasznia-Brown form European Society of Paediatric Radiology in addition to speakers from the Baltic Countries.

 

 

WFUMB 2023 in Muscat, Oman

EJU Editor Elected

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Prof Alina Popescu as the new Executive Editor of the EJU

 

Could you please present yourself for our readers?

I am Alina Popescu, Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the “Victor Babeș” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timișoara, PhD in Gastroenterology, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the “Pius Brânzeu” Emergency County Clinical Hospital Timișoara. Currently I am the Treasurer of EFSUMB and Past President of the Romanian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (SRUMB) for 2020-2022, former member of the Education and Professional Standards Committee of EFSUMB and of the World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (WFUMB) Student Education Committee.

 

Could you tell us some words regarding your new position as official representative of EFSUMB on the Board of Editors of “Ultraschall in der Medizin / European Journal of Ultrasound” (UiM/EJU)?

 

My nomination by The Romanian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (SRUMB) as a candidate for this important position and the confidence that the delegates showed me by voting for me, honors me and at the same time obliges me. This is even more so since the position was previously occupied by the EFSUMB President Elect Vito Cantisani, whose activity at the level of the journal was extremely important and dedicated. I want to rise to the expectations of all those who have given me this trust and to whom I thank for their support. I would also like to thank Thieme, the publishing house, for welcoming me to the journal.

 

Can you give us some insights of what means this position?

 

Medicine cannot progress without research, and the scientific community needs strong and reliable partners for presenting the results of their work. I think that Thieme and Ultraschall in der Medizin / European Journal of Ultrasound are such partners, and I am grateful to be part of their activity. Through my commitments at the journal’s level, I would like to contribute to the increase of knowledge in ultrasound by bringing to the attention of the medical world the progress that ultrasonography is constantly making from the level of basic research to clinical experience. But this can be done only with the support of the ultrasound scientific community as both contributors and reviewers of the new materials seeking the light of publication.

Part 2: PoCUS Guidelines

  Bob Jarman updates us on the Non Traumatic Abdominal Pain PoCUS Part 2

 

 

Multiparametric Ultrasound - Thyroid Guidelines

 

Thyroid nodules are being increasingly detected during thyroid evaluations or incidentally during ultrasound examinations for other clinical purposes [1] or screening programs, thus leading to potential over diagnosis and over treatment. Therefore, the present thyroid nodule epidemic represents a challenge for clinical management, since the vast majority of identified nodules end up being diagnosed as benign. The clinical practice guidelines limit the number of nodules to be submitted to fine-needle aspiration cytology, and selection no longer relies upon size and growth pattern.

 

The role of ultrasonography is expanding to include not only initial diagnosis but also risk stratification, selection of nodules to be submitted to FNAC, management and follow-up of nodules with indeterminate cytology, and even provision of prognostic information. Technology developments including CEUS and US-elastography have resulted in new prospects in ultrasound, leading to the possibility of performing multiparametric ultrasound as advocated. However, stilli it is not clear the role of single parameter or the necessity to put together all of them, EFSUMB decided to contribute with a Guideline on thyroid nodules MPUS, reporting on limits and trying to asnwer all the open issues grouping together a panel of multidisciplinary experts in the field.

 

The group applied the Delphi strategy, with a systematic literature search done by librarians and according to the established PICO questions. The guideline is ongoing.

 

PoCUS in Primary Care Task Force

EFSUMB has established a task force group of general practitioners, paediatricians and frontline physicians to establish a PoCUS core curriculum for frontline physicians in primary care. The task force group includes several specialists from several European countries. The first real life meeting of the group took place in Riga during Euroson 2023. Before this, several online meetings had been used to discuss the different skills and needs across different countries and how to proceed. It was decided to continue with a Delphi study to develop a list of PoCUS examinations suitable for a core curriculum. The recruitment of participants for the Delphi study has just ended after intensive work. More than 100 primary care doctors from 28 European countries have been recruited and the Delphi process is about to begin.

The result of the study will hopefully be published in 2024.

EFSUMB would like to thank all the members of the task force group, especially Camilla Aakjær Andersen who has been leading the process. We would also like to thank all the participants who have volunteered to participate in the process.

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