EFSUMB Newsletter meets Norway

Odd Helge Gilja

Facts on Norway

Population 4.8 million Largest cities: Oslo 600,000, Bergen 250,000 Area: 285,000 km2 EFSUMB members: 242

The interview between the former president of the Norwegian Society for Diagnostic Ultrasound in Medicine and current Chaimen of EFSUMB's Education & Professional Standards Committee Professor Odd Helge Gilja and Editor of the Newsletter Professor Michael Bachmann Nielsen took place in July 2009. The Norwegian society joined EFSUMB in 1975.

Could you tell us a little about your current position and how you became involved in ultrasound?

My current position is senior consultant at National Centre for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology at Haukeland University Hospital, which is a centre of excellence appointed by the Norwegian Health Authorities in 2001. I am also professor at the University of Bergen and leader of the research cluster MedViz (medviz.uib.no/). From 2001 to 2007 I was president of the Norwegian Ultrasound Society (NFUD) and I am now chairing the Education and Professional Standards Committee in EFSUMB.

I became involved in ultrasound in 1992 during my work at the Department of Medicine through an inspiring meeting with prof. Ødegaard and other colleagues. I saw the great potential for ultrasound in a clinical setting to do efficient work-up of patients with a variety of diseases. Soon I was engaged in research and in 1997 I finished a PhD on 3D ultrasound and novel methods in stomach scanning.

Tell us a short version about how ultrasound is organized in your country and the present status.

The main organization for ultrasound in Norway is NFUD, where different medical specialties, midwifes and engineers are members. However, many radiologists and cardiologists are organized in respective disciplinary societies. A clear trend is that more and more general practitioners are using ultrasound and they have also formed their own small society.

Does your society have a newsletter and what format does it have?

Yes, NFUD established its own newsletter "Flaggermusen" in 2001 and it was soon incorporated in Ultraschall/Eur J Ultrasound.

How is education in ultrasound organised within your society, do you have official training courses, if so how many, and often are they organised and do you have official exams to pass before you are certified to do ultrasound?

NFUD arranges yearly courses in conjunction with the Annual assembly. These courses are usually accredited by the different speciality boards for a certain amount of hours in coursing. However, Norway has no official CME accreditation and therefore no official exams need to be passed. Nevertheless, in some specialities like cardiology, ob/gyn and gastroenterology compulsory courses are included in the curriculum.

Do you have a website and do you have educational material on the website?

Yes, our website (www.nfud.no) was established during my presidency in NFUD. The website contains abstracts and some ppt-files and links to other educational sites. A case-quiz has also recently been established to increase the interactivity.

Do your courses follow different levels of competences ex. similar to the EFSUMB guidelines?

Yes, we try to comply with the EFSUMB recommendations. However, most of our courses are on level 1. Only a very few courses are intended for level 2.

How often do you hold national conferences? Please also tell us a bit about your last conference.

NFUD hold National conferences once a year, usually in March-April. To our meeting in Oslo this year, we also invited Danish and Swedish colleagues to j-. The program was an interdisciplinary mixture of contributions from gyn/obs, radiology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and engineering. Dr. Torbjørn Moe Eggebø ended his long and good service in the NFUD-Board and his 2 years duty as president and Dr. Hilde Hammer (rheumatologist) was elected as new president.

What are your expectations and hopes for the future concerning relation between your country and EFSUMB?

I hope that NFUD and EFSUMB can continue to build a strong relationship to the best of both parts. One important area of cooperation is education. Both NFUD and EFSUMB should continue to include educational material (images, videos, cases, .ppt/PDF files of presentations etc.) on their websites. "Ultrasound on the web" will be a special session on the up-coming EUROSON congress in Edinburgh.