European Course Book (ECB)

Table of Contents

Dear ultrasonographer, dear friend,

The 22nd EUROSON Congress hosted by EFSUMB and the Danish Society of Diagnostic Ultrasound to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark 22-25 August 2010 will be coming up soon. This might be a good time to announce that the first chapters of the planned EFSUMB-European Course Book will be published in the beginning of August (just before the EUROSON congress) on the website (www.EFSUMB.org). The respective chapters can be downloaded as PDF-files. In the following paragraphs a short introduction, history and perspectives of EFSUMB are summarised.

On February 11, 1972, the delegates of 13 European societies met in Basel (Switzerland) for the formal foundation of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB). The Federation's purpose shall be to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge and development in the medical and biological professions as applied to ultrasound. The Federation shall propose standards and give advice concerning criteria for the optimum apparatus and techniques, and concerning presentation and interpretation of results. This aim is to be served by arrangement of congresses and study and development meetings on an international level, as well as the exchange of information both in and outside Europe by the member organisations. EFSUMB has strengthened the interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of diagnostic ultrasound and for safety of ultrasound in medical use.

The European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) has proposed minimal training requirements for the practice of medical ultrasound in Europe (www.efsumb.org). These identify three levels of training and expertise. The boundaries between the three levels are difficult to define precisely and should be regarded as a guide to different levels of competence and experience. There is a demand to incorporate ultrasound experience into clinical courses and accreditation. It is of interest that up to now no EFSUMB dedicated Course Book (ECB) has been considered and published.

Intention

The planned EFSUMB Course Book is intended to supplement and complete the educational purposes of EFSUMB. The editor intends to create a multidisciplinary EFSUMB Course Book which will integrate the whole experience of European driven authors and ultrasound teachers. The course book is devoted to the interdisciplinary approach of the multinational societies of EFSUMB. The ECB will incorporate the minimum training recommendations for the practice of medical ultrasound published by EFSUMB. The book will be published on the website in close collaboration with the EFSUMB Publication and Education committees.

The aim is to distribute the ECB all over Europe and also to standardize and improve examination techniques and to illustrate the EFSUMB course system. All chapters are supposed to be written by three authors. All three authors should be ideally from different European countries.

The first chapters introduced on the website are "Educational Aspects in EFSUMB" (Odd Helge Gilja, Jan Tuma J, Michael Bachmann Nielsen), "Ultrasound of the liver" as part of the hepatobiliary chapter (Christoph F. Dietrich/Germany, Carla Serra/Italy, Maciej Jedreczyk/Poland); "Estimation of liver stiffness using ultrasound waves" (Ioan Sporea/Roumania, Mireen Friedrich-Rust/Germany, Odd Helge Gilja/Norway); "Pancreas" (Mirko D'Onofrio,/Italy, Vullierme Marie-Pierre/France, Válek Vlastimil/Czech Republic); "Transabdominal US of the gastrointestinal tract" (Alois Hollerweger/Austria, Klaus Dirks /Germany, Kazimir Scopinski/Poland); "Chest Sonography" (Gebhard Mathis/Austria, Z. Sparchez/Roumania, G. Volpicelli/Italy); "Nephrology, Transplantation and shunts" (FM Drudi/Italy, F Malpassini/Italy, N Di Leo/Italy).

Responsible Editor and Corresponding Adress

Prof. Dr. med. Christoph F. Dietrich
EFSUMB Honorary secretary
Caritaskrankenhaus Bad Mergentheim
Medizinische Klinik 2
Uhlandstr. 7
D-97980 Bad Mergentheim
Tel.: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

Intellectual Property Rights (modified from the EFSUMB-website)

EFSUMB is the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our website, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the editors and authors of material on our site must always be acknowledged. You may print off one copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our website for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to material posted on our site. You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text. You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining permission to do so from us.

Cordially, Christoph F. Dietrich
EFSUMB Honorary Secretary