Report from EFSUMB Education & Professional Standards Committee

Table of Contents

Meetings

The committee has met twice during the course of the last year in December 2005 and April 2006. The next meeting is scheduled for January 2007

Review of Bylaw No.9

The committee has reviewed its compliance with the Bylaw and has confirmed compliance with the majority. Point 11.5 refers to advice on methods of accreditation to practise ultrasound in different specialty areas. It is felt that limited progress can be made in this area because of the different laws and regulatory bodies in different member societies' countries. Point 11.6 (advice on minimum technical specifications for equipment) and 11.7 (advice on quality control processes) require further work and a 'Task & Finish' group has been set up under the chairmanship of Professor Yves Ville to do this.

The Bylaws no. 7 (Regulations for the organisation of an ultrasound teaching course of the Euroson School) and Bylaw no. 9 (Education and Professional Standards Committee) have also been changed so that:

• Applications to run Euroson Schools will now be submitted to the Education & Professional Standards committee for approval and once approved a member of this committee will work with the organisers of the School

• This committee will be responsible in future for organising the EFSUMB session at Euroson Congresses

Minimum Training Recommendations

Syllabuses and competence assessment sheets for ultrasound practice in obstetrics, gynaecology, gastroenterology, nephro-urology, breast and vascular disease have been available on the EFSUMB website since September 2005 and were published in the EFSUMB Newsletter that accompanied the February 2006 edition of the European Journal of Ultrasound. It has been agreed that these are dynamic recommendations and where appropriate will be updated and modified from time to time on the website. Experts are currently reviewing these first six syllabuses. In addition specialist ultrasound societies in Europe are being asked for their comments. Following this the recommendations will be submitted to UEMS asking for their endorsement.

The Chairman has written to all member societies asking for comments on the EFSUMB recommendations, how they compare with national guidelines, whether competence assessment is undertaken in each country, whether further syllabuses would be helpful and whether member societies see the need for formal accreditation of ultrasound training in their respective countries. Written or verbal replies have been received from 11 of the 27 member societies. If more replies are received then a summary of these will be submitted for publication in the Newsletter

The committee is now developing further syllabuses on:

• Endoscopic Ultrasound - published in this Newsletter and on the EFSUMB website. EFSUMB is grateful to Prof Odd Helge Gilja, Prof. Svein Ødegaard and Dr. Lars Birger Nesje for preparing these guidelines.

• Ultrasound Contrast Agents - to await the review of the current EFSUMB guidelines by the EFSUMB group responsible for this

• Cranial Ultrasound in Infants

• Focused Emergency Ultrasound

• Critical/Intensive Care Ultrasound

• Musculoskeletal Ultrasound

• Thoracic Ultrasound

Other Proposed Work of the Committee

• Developing DVDs/CDs based on the minimum training recommendations and Euroson Schools

• Greater involvement in Euroson Schools in terms of support for their organisation as well as suggestions for faculty members and topics (eg contrast agents, emergency and intensive care ultrasound, musculosketal ultrasound, 3D/4D ultrasound and obstetric ultrasound - 1st trimester, heart, brain)

• The development of pre and post course/school multiple choice questions to assess the effectiveness of the course and the acquired knowledge of participants

• The development of educational material on the website if this adds value to the educational material currently available on other websites

• The development of an education and professional standards session at each Euroson Congress. Suggestions for future congresses include: above only or above and below knee scanning for DVT, medico-legal aspects of ultrasound practice, characterisation of focal liver lesions using ultrasound contrast agents compared to CT and MRI, an overview of the EFSUMB ultrasound contrast agent guidelines when they have been updated, 'the way I do it' sessions, level 3/state of the art lectures, cardiac ultrasound, documentation and image recording requirements, 'second read' ultrasound, controversies in ultrasound.

Dr David Lindsell

Chairman EFSUMB Education and Professional Standards Committee