EFSUMB Newsletter meets the United Kingdom

Table of Contents

Dr Grant Baxter

• Population: 60 million

• Area: 244.820 km²

• Capital and largest city: London (7 million)

• Area: 1,579 km²

• EFSUMB members: 2,517

• Host city for the next EUROSON Congress Edinburgh - Population 468,000

Grant Baxter was the President of British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS) from 2004 to 2006 and for the last two years he has been the delegate at EFSUMB. Interview by Professor Michael Bachmann Nielsen December 2008.

Grant is radiologist at The Western Infirmary in Glasgow; he has served the BMUS council since 1993. "I have always liked practical work, this was probably how I ended up being involved in ultrasound and guided intervention and when colour Doppler came around many years ago I started doing a lot of vascular examinations". Since that the organisation within radiology departments has changed from being modality based into being area based. "Nowadays my main work is within oncology and transplants."

BMUS - 40 years in ultrasound

Originating in 1969 as an informal ultrasound group the society took its present name in 1977 when it became affiliated with the world federation WFUMB.

BMUS is multidisciplinary and has approximately 2.500 members. Of these sonographers have the greatest number but there are also many radiologists and physicians.

The president of the society serves for 6 years: 2 year as President Elect, 2 years as President and 2 years as Past President. At the council meeting during the BMUS meeting in Liverpool in December 2008 Ms Julie Walton took over as President and the previous Honorary Secretary Colin Deane, a physicist from London, became President elect.

In the BMUS council six seats are reserved: two for medical doctors, two for physicians and two for sonographers, the rest of the seats any member can be elected. In the current council the majority of medical doctors are radiologists. "Many clinicians tend to go to their own societies, but the BMUS is now encouraging them to come to BMUS meetings by having special topic sessions that can attract e.g., urologists, OB/GYN etc."

BMUS meetings and study days

BMUS has its annual meeting in December. In 2008 it was in Liverpool and attracted 7-800 participants and had a scientific programme with 5 parallel sessions. The next annual meeting will be in Edinburgh in December 2009 and will be held together with the EUROSON meeting.

Apart from the annual meeting BMUS have 1-day courses, called BMUS Study Days. They are held between 6 and 8 each year. The topics from recent study days have been "Essential Ultrasound for Nephrologists", "Contrast ultrasound", "DVT", "Musculoskeletal Ultrasound" and upcoming events are gynaecological as well as obstetric ultrasound. For more details please visit www.bmus.org

Generally 60-80 people attend the BMUS Study Days but often many more. The meetings are not arranged according to the three levels of competences described in EFSUMB, instead they focus on a specific topic.

Training in ultrasound in the UK

Radiologists have their own training programme decided by the Royal College of Radiologists (www.rcr.ac.uk). "It takes 5 years to complete the training programme and after that you are eligible for consultant ship. You have to pass an exam between the 3rd and 4th year, this exam is in all imaging modalities and topics. Sonographers have their own training programme, which takes 2 years to complete. After this some will continue with a MSc project. Also some physicists will be involved in patient examinations, mainly vascular Doppler and there are training programmes for them also".

Website and official journal

The BMUS Newsletter is electronic and available at the website. "Ultrasound" - the official BMUS journal is published quarterly. "The journal which used to be called The BMUS bulletin has now changed into being a scientific journal and we are still hoping to be approved for impact factor." It publishes a mixture of review articles, current research, and descriptions of new techniques and equipment. The Editor is Dr. Emma Chung from Leicester.

Welcome to Edinburgh - everyone is invited to wear a kilt

In December 2009 BMUS will host the EUROSON meeting for the second time in Edinburgh. "Edinburgh is a great city; it's a fantastic tourist city and has a fantastic conference centre."

The meeting starts on Sunday the 6th of December. "We hope many participants and delegates will take the opportunity to arrive early in the weekend to enjoy the historical city which is particularly beautiful in the Christmas time"

"We will do our best to make a first class programme both scientifically and socially. There will be traditional dance and dinners, and everyone is invited to wear a kilt if they want to. It is also the only change for a man to wear a skirt and look smart," Grant Baxter says with a smile.

The website for the meeting www.euroson2009.org is now online greeting you with "Fàilte gu Dùn Eideann - Welcome to Edinburgh".

Dr Baxter in a kilt