Adrian Săftoiu
As the new editor of the EFSUMB Newsletter I want to personally welcome all the readers
and contributors, especially from the very active EFSUMB community. Obviously, the
letter will continue to go on in the same format in each number of the European Journal
of Ultrasound, meaning that the six monthly basis will be a decent frequency to support
an ongoing debate about EFSUMB activities, including EUROSON congresses, schools and
endorsed courses. The generous space provided by the European Journal of Ultrasound
should represent an ongoing resource of new technology highlights in the ultrasound
field, as well as recent article and book reviews. One of the hallmarks of the ultrasound
community, namely interdisciplinarity, will be represented and especially envisioned
in the content of the newsletter in the following period.
Being a gastroenterologist with experience in both transabdominal and endoscopic ultrasound,
I will try to bring into attention of practitioners high quality research in ultrasound,
but also hot topic educational issues, in order to provoke other challenging editorials
and material for the newsletter. The objective would be to improve the current clinical
practice of ultrasound at all levels, in the same time as building the EFSUMB reputation
and taking the Newsletter to a broader audience. We would like to bring to your attention
success stories in the field of ultrasound, either on the educational or research
side, so I strongly encourage everybody to please send the material to us.
Contact Hans-Peter Weskott weskotthp@t-online.de for more information or www.efsumb.org
A warm thankful message is of course directed to the previous editor, Prof. Dr. Michael
Bachmann Nielsen which had a profound contribution to the content of the newsletter
in the past four years. Thus, a series of interviews with member countries of EFSUMB
and also a series of new technology editorials was successfully introduced and carried
on through his efforts which are deeply appreciated in the EFSUMB community and also
the Publication Committee.
Through the sustained efforts of the EFSUMB commitees the initiative of an educational
portal slowly developed, being launched during the WFUMB 2011 and 23rd EUROSON congress
held in Vienna and already receiving a lot of individual visits. The Educational Portal
represents an online collection of resources contributed by healthcare professionals,
starting with the freely downloadable EFSUMB European Course book, clinical recommendations
and guidelines (including for example the new EFSUMB Guidelines and Recommendations
on the Clinical Practice of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS):
Update 2011 on Non-hepatic Applications), examination techniques, case file presentations,
etc.; most of them grouped under various system and organ categories. The Educational
Portal should be entirely dynamic and consequently all ideas are welcome to be discussed
in an academic, but certainly relaxed atmosphere. Intertwined links with the successful
Case of the Month initiative of the EFSUMB website, will allow users to read interesting
and illustrative cases, translated in several languages.
In the current issue we will also host a message from the new EFSUMB President, Dr.
Fabio Piscaglia, which is taking his assignment with a lot of enthusiasm and of course
responsibility. This was also boosted by the recent development of the new non-hepatic
CEUS guidelines, which was successfully carried on in a very limited time. Being already
available on the EFSUMB website and also as an electronic publication, this will surely
represent a great help for all practitioners involved in the contrast-enhanced ultrasound
community.
For registration and preliminary programme visit www.euroson2012.com
