EFSUMB Ultrasound Learning Area UEG Week

United European Gastroenterologists Week Ultrasound Learning Area, Berlin, 4–7 October 2025

This year Berlin was the central European point for gastroenterology for 4 days at the UEG Week with the annual congress of gastroenterology, bringing together digestive health experts from around the world interested in sharing the latest information, achievements and novelties in the field.

During the UEG Week the UEG Ultrasound Learning Area (ULA) promoted the role of ultrasound as a major diagnostic and interventional tool in gastroenterology: clinical ultrasonography in the hands of the gastroenterologist, a way to “see with Sound Inside the Abdomen”. The Ultrasound Learning Area is run since 1996 in courtesy of EFSUMB, and had the support of General Electric, Siemens, Mindray, Fujifilm, Schallware and Abbvie companies. The representatives of the ultrasound companies were closely involved in supporting the training courses and live demonstrations, thus becoming close partners of the faculty.

This year the Ultrasound Learning Area offered basic and postgraduate courses on ultrasonography, individual hands-on training, special lectures in multiparametric ultrasound for liver diseases and, for the first time, an introductory course on ultrasound in inflammatory bowel diseases. The EFSUMB faculty included 18 experts from 6 European countries and was led by Professor Alina Popescu (Timisoara, Romania) and Professor Christian Jenssen (Strausberg, Germany). The program was specially designed for both young and senior gastroenterologists, with or without experience in ultrasonography, and also for those with interest in the new developments in ultrasound-based techniques. Overall, 12 200 gastroenterologists from 115 countries participated and listened to high-class lectures, watched live demonstrations of examination techniques and eagerly participated in hands-on training sessions. To provide also practical examination experience on real pathologies, the training was for the first time not only carried out on healthy models, but also on simulators. On the last day, we were also able to recruit 4 patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for live demonstrations and hands-on training sessions.

In recent years, ultrasound diagnostics have become essential for the diagnosis, assessment of activity, prediction of treatment response and, in particular, the assessment of the course of inflammatory bowel disease, an inexpensive imaging technique in the hands of the gastroenterologist that can be integrated directly into clinical diagnostics. This is why an introductory course on ultrasound in IBD was offered for the first time at UEG Week, in which internationally recognized experts teach the participants the essentials of sonographic diagnostics in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis in a combination of lectures, live demonstrations on patients and hand-on exercises/simulator training. The IBD course was met with an overwhelming interest. Although the last day of the congress is traditionally less well attended, we were able to set a new ULA visitor record with the IBD course. All 150 seats were occupied, and during the breaks and when the conference venue at the Berlin Messe had almost emptied at 3:30 p.m., the most enthusiastic participants could not be torn away from the ultrasound machines and simulators.

In 2026, we will celebrate the 30^th anniversary of the Ultrasound Learning Area at the 34^th UEG Week in Barcelona – encouraged by the growing and overwhelming interest of the gastroenterology community in making ultrasound the second important tool in their own hands, alongside endoscopy.

EFSUMB and the ULA team look forward to contributing to the success of the concept of clinical ultrasound in gastroenterology, which was founded in 1976 by EFSUMB honorary member Gerhard Rettenmaier.

Professor Alina Popescu, Timisoara, Romania, and Professor Christian Jenssen, Strausberg, Germany
ULA Course Directors