Epilogue from 17th Euroson Congress 2005, Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

There were more than 1900 of you in Geneva last September for our Annual Euroson Congress, held along with the "Ultraschall-Dreiländertreffen". This multidisciplinary medical meeting has gathered together people from more than 40 European and non-European countries, linked by their common interest in medical ultrasound.

Continuing medical education was an important part of the meeting, with about 200 hours of refresher courses, workshops and state-of-art lectures divided among the different medical specialities. We had the chance to benefit from the experience of more than 200 international ultrasound experts who were all enthusiastic to share their knowledge with us. The participants were indeed unanimous in emphasising the high quality of the speakers and I take this opportunity to thanks them all once more for their excellent job and their always-positive collaboration.

A medical speciality cannot survive without a regular renewal of basic concepts and general knowledge. Indeed the continuing education keeps the level high, but real breakthroughs come from research. This Euroson Congress was also particularly rich in scientific contents, with more than 200 scientific presentations and more than 150 posters. This large number of scientific papers reflects the high level and the thrust of European sonography. Both EFSUMB and SSUM-SGUM (Swiss Society of Sonography) actively sustain this aspect of medical sonography. The awards distributed by these Societies to young scientists during the Congress not only reward high quality scientific work but also stimulate researchers to produce future papers.

A part of the program unanimously applauded by the attendees was the "Sonohöhle", the room dedicated to practical work with the standing participation of tutors from the SSUM, particularly from the internal medicine and general practitioners sections. These people have produced a huge activity to organize and perform these tutorials and I also take the opportunity to thank them all. Indeed, the "Sonohöhle" has suffered from its success and some have complained that not enough places were available.

Unfortunately not all was perfect and some improvements may be proposed for future meetings. Practical work has to be enhanced with more places available. We hope we may rely on the industry to help us in this project. Another criticism concerned the lack of gala dinner. Convivial meeting of colleagues is really an important role of a congress but cannot be assumed without financial security. With the actual reduction in sponsorship all solutions have to be considered to assure the durability of our annual meetings.

Finally, nothing would be possible without the professional support of our CPO. They work very hard for the success of the meeting and I want to repeat how grateful I am for their efficiency. Thus the projectors have been turned off, the exhibition tidied and everybody returned home with a little bit more knowledge. The remaining congress material (pens, pads and bags) have been distributed to a children's association. I hope that every attendee will keep pleasant memories of this meeting and will be stimulated to participate in future ones, either in Bologna for the next Euroson meeting or in Graz for the next "Dreiländertreffen Ultraschall" ... or both!