EFSUMB Newsletter meets Spain

Table of Contents

Facts:

• Population: 45 million

• Capital and largest city: Madrid (3.2 million)

• Area: 504.030 km²

• EFSUMB members: 180

Spain was one of the thirteen founding members of EFSUMB in 1972. The current interview between the president and delegate of the Spanish Ultrasound Society SEECO (SOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE ECOGRAFIA) Dr Eugenio Cerezo and Editor of the EFSUMB Newsletter, Professor Michael Bachmann Nielsen, took place in April 2008.

Eugenio Cerezo is now running a private clinic in Madrid. He has been the delegate of the Spanish Society for a number of years now. "I'm a specialist in internal medicine and gastroenterology", Eugenio Cerezo says, "and I started doing ultrasound in the seventies. Nowadays I only do ultrasound examinations".

"Spain is only listed as having 177 members; this seems small compared to the size of the country". "It is", Eugenio Cerezo says," it should be closer to six thousand. The reason is that ultrasound is performed by doctors within many different societies: radiology, internal medicine, vascular medicine, gynaecology and obstetrics, rheumatology, gastroenterology, general practitioners to mention a few. This means that the Spanish Ultrasound Society, SEECO, is not a huge but multi disciplinary society that integrates different specialists that practice ultrasound exams, even veterinarians, and also there are a number of other societies which integrates exclusively some special ultrasound doctors, as for example UROLOGY SOCIETY integrates only UROLOGIST, GYNAECOLOGY SOCIETY (SEGO) only GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTRECTICS DOCTORS, not as an independent society but as section groups".

Training during Doppler course dedicated to the carotids

In Spain there are three independent ultrasound societies, one "SOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE ULTRASONOGRAFIA" formed exclusively by radiologists, other "ASOCIACION DE ECOGRAFIA DIGESTIVA" integrated by gastroenterologists and finally SEECO "SOCIEDAD ESPAÑOLA DE ECOGRAFIA" multidisciplinary and integrated for different types of specialities, the latter being associated with EFSUMB. For someone outside Spain one wonders why these societies do not join in one large federation. "The problem is complex", Cerezo says, "of the societies listed above the Gastroenterological one and SEECO, as truly independent societies, are trying to integrate in a federation, the problem is not the will to form the federation rather it is a legal problem because in Spain we need three societies to form a federation, and the other groups which want integrate, the gynaecologist, very numerous, are not a truly independent society. Radiologist do not can afford the fee for the federation and that is the reason they give for not integrate. We are currently working on a way to get around that issue and also to attract more doctors and hopefully it will succeed, it takes time and patience."

SEECO officers Dr Eugenio Cerezo, President

Dr Antonio Diaz, Vicepresident

Dr Conception Millana, Honorary Secretary

Christina Martinez, Honorary Treasurer

SEECO has a newsletter every second month; the information goes on the Internet. Their new website was launched recently, www.seeco.es and is entirely in Spanish.

"Being a delegate in EFSUMB I am sure you have considered joining the Ultraschall in der Medizin - family", says Michael Bachmann Nielsen. "The journal is certainly a very attractive journal and if we succeed in making one united ultrasound society in Spain I hope we can consider this for our official journal. We are currently working to launch a web based journal, hopefully at the end of the year; it will be a bi-language journal." Spanish is one of the major languages of the world, it is estimated that it is the first language of more than 400 million people. "When we study at the university all our books are in Spanish", Cerezo says, "and I would guess that between 60 and 70 % of common doctors in Spain do not read easily English. This is also one of the reasons why it is difficult to join an English language journal. But this is changing, in young doctors".

Because of the mix of societies involved in ultrasound in Spain there are also a large numbers of courses. "I am involved in courses in vascular Doppler, musculoskeletal ultrasound courses etc., even we do a special abdomen ultrasound course " Cerezo says, "which is a combination of lectures, clinical practice and finally an exam corresponding to EFSUMB level 1 which we are going to extend to other ultrasound applications".

"What are your hopes for ultrasound and EFSUMB in the future?" "Ultrasound in Spain is actually doing well, diversity is good, and a large number of doctors are now performing ultrasound in almost every medical speciality", Eugenio Cerezo says. "My hope is that EFSUMB will be the one who will organize a common European test corresponding to the levels they have described. There should be tests involving abdominal US, vascular US, musculoskeletal, gynaecology and obstetric ultrasound etc. and it would be an excellent thing to insure that we have the same standard throughout Europe".