EFSUMB Newsletter meets Turkey

Table of Contents

Facts:

Dr. Ismail Mihmanli

• Area: 783,562 km²

• Largest city: Istanbul

• Population: 13 million

• Capital: Ankara

• Population: 4.5 million

• EFSUMB members: 283

Turkey joined EFSUMB in 2005. The current interview between the delegate of the Turkish Ultrasound Society Dr. Ismail Mihmanli and the Editor of the EFSUMB Newsletter, Professor Michael Bachmann Nielsen, took place in August 2008. Ismail Mihmanli is Head of the Ultrasound and Doppler Division at the Radiology Department of Cerrahpasa Medical School in Istanbul University. A professor in Radiology, with the subspeciality Doppler ultrasound he has been the Turkish delegate to EFSUMB since the Society of Medical Ultrasonography joined EFSUMB in 2005.

The Turkish Ultrasound Society was formed around 1980. "Our society is multidisciplinary but the main part of members is radiologists. I will expect that more than one thousand radiologists could be available for membership. Few gastroenterologists are members and few of them do perform ultrasound, maybe because the workload of patients is so large that one can save time to set patients to ultrasound examinations elsewhere."

Turkey has a training programme similar to many other European countries. "After finishing medical school there is a mandatory 2 years service in government hospital, you have to draw a place name, like in a lottery, and this name decides which hospital in the country you would have to go to. The specialist training takes 4-5 years. To become a specialist in Turkey you have to pass an exam", Dr. Mihmanli says. "The Health Ministry has recently acknowledged that the numbers of doctors are lower than it should be and this year the uptake in medical students was increased 25%."

Turkey is a very large country, extending about 1,600 kilometres southeast to northwest and 650 kilometres northeast to southwest, neighbouring 7 countries. "Does the size of the country give any language problems and which language do you speak?" "Not really", Mihmanli says, "Turkish is the only official language and everyone in Turkey speaks that language. There may be some parts of the country where another dialect is spoken but Turkish is always spoken as the official language and it is the language you are taught in school. In elementary school you are offered second language, which is most often English, but it could be German or French. Personally I did not learn English until I went to the university, and English is the only other language I speak except Turkish. I do not know any of the languages from our neighbouring countries."

"As you know the official journal of EFSUMB is the European Journal of Ultrasound and I know that you personally have published in that journal. Do you think that the Turkish Society will at some time take on the journal?" "The problem is the English language", Ismail Mihmanli says, "doctors at university hospital will have a certain experience in the English language and will be able to read English but many doctors outside of university hospital will have difficulty in understanding the scientific content."

The Turkish society holds annual courses, all held entirely in the Turkish language. "We can hold a course in English, inviting speakers from other countries and mainly from our universities who can give lectures in English as well. But we have to organize simultaneous translation from English to Turkish at this kind of course. As you know, this will increase organization cost. In addition, audience prefer courses to be held in Turkish. This year in April we held a course in obstetric ultrasound in Ankara, we will hold a course with the same subject once again in Antalya in September. In general, course subject is determined according to audience questionnaire which we took at the end of each course. The 2009 meeting will also be in Ankara in the spring. We often choose Ankara to our courses because it is the government city with lots of hotels, and also it is located central in the country so that many will be able to come by car."

There is not a dedicated newsletter for the society, correspondence goes out by using e-mail and is also posted at the website of the society www.tud.org.tr. Courses and meetings are also to be found at the radiology website www.turkrad.org.tr.

Last year the Turkish society lost a bid to host the EUROSON congress in Istanbul. However Turkey is increasingly popular as a location for congresses. Both ESGAR and CIRSE have already held successful congresses in Turkey, perhaps EUROSON will be next?

Board of Directors of Turkish Ultrasound Society. Left to right; Prof Deniz Akata, Prof Adnan Kabaalioglu, Prof Mustafa Ozmen, Prof Enis Igci, Prof Ismail Mihmanli, Prof Mustafa Secil, Prof Sureyya Ozbek.

Istanbul where continents meet; the magnificient view of Bosphorous from the helicopter.