Report Honorary Secretary

Christoph F. Dietrich Honorary Secretary EFSUMB

The task of the Honorary Secretary was both satisfying and challenging in the last period especially to keep in touch with the member national societies. I worked with friends of the Executive Bureau, the Board of Directors, and the various EFSUMB committees (being also a member of the Publication Committee), and with individual members of the member societies. The importance of our multinational watchdog group on ultrasound safety and the more and more important role of our education and publication committees have to be highlighted.

The good relationship to the industry was also strengthened as partners for improved patients care and innovative technology.

Development of Membership

Some national societies, however, develop better than others with respect to their number of individual members, their scientific and educational activities and their representation within EFSUMB.

As a whole, EFSUMB is a flourishing enterprise with actually 19804 members, with the following distribution

On behalf the Executive Bureau, we kindly ask (again and again) all members as a whole and especially the secretaries of each national society to provide us with active email member addresses.

Finally, a society as well as a federation is as much alive as are its members - so please do not hesitate to communicate with us (www.efsumb.org).

Moldova a new member society

Applications for membership of the EFSUMB family were approved by the Board of Directors from the Moldova Society who faced a friendly and warm welcome.

20th EUROSON Congress in Timisoara, Romania (31st May - 3rd June)

Since the very successful EUROSON congress in Timisoara organised by Prof. Ioan Sporea and Dr. Alina Popescu with the Board of Directors (BoD) meeting there was quite a lot of work to be done which will be discussed shortly.

Executive Bureau (ExB) meeting in Leicester

The recent Executive Bureau (ExB) meeting was in Leicester, organised by Prof. David Evans. Good news was reported by the organisers of the BMUS meeting in Edinburgh 2009 who presented their well advanced status quo. The ExB expressed their willingness to strengthen the identity of EFSUMB and to encourage you to actively participate in our society.

EFSUMB General Secretary, new Office

EFSUMB new office is now situated in central London [EFSUMB General Secretary, 36 Portland Place, London W1B 1LS, Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]. eMail: [e-mail] in the same building as BMUS is located. The Honorary Secretary had the opportunity to visit this exciting place in the heart of London to discuss and prepare future EFSUMB activities with Gianna Stanford, our well known Secretary better known as the heart and soul of EFSUMB.

Newsletter

Michael Bachman and his team from the publication committee worked hard on interesting topics. One of these new topics is the interview with one of our member societies.

European Journal of Ultrasound (Ultraschall): Impact Factor 2.3

The Impact Factor of our European Journal of Ultrasound (Ultraschall) has reached 2.3. Congratulation to all researchers who participated in this success story and to the Editors and Reviewers.

Improved website

The website improved over the last year significantly. Be curious and hit on www.efsumb.org.

Case of the Month

The case of the month on the EFSUMB website (http://www.efsumb.org) was implemented some month ago. About 10.000 EFSUMB-website visitors have hit so far this new modality. Please feel free to submit "your image (or technique) of the month" to eMail: [e-mail].

The revised EFSUMB guidelines on the use of Ultrasonic Contrast Agents were published in the 1st edition of Ultraschall in 2008 (Claudon et al, Ultraschall in Med 29: 28-44, 2008).

The revised EFSUMB guidelines 2008 on the use of Ultrasonic Contrast Agents were published in the 1st edition of Ultraschall in 2008 (Ultraschall in Med 29: 28-44, 2008).

The 2008 revisited and expanded new version include recommendations for other applications as well, e.g., kidney, vesico-ureteric reflux, pancreas, trauma and cerebral circulation. These guidelines are based on comprehensive literature surveys including results from prospective clinical trials and experience of many active members of the EFSUMB to improve the management of patients.

Scientific corner

The initiation of European multicenter trials or at least a discussion forum is another goal. The EFSUMB-platform might be particularly helpful for the individual member to find participants of their ideas. For example we have to prove all together that ultrasound is effective (and also cost effective!) under many circumstances, including the emergency room and other accesses to the hospital, in the out patients care setting and under many other circumstances.

EUROSON SCHOOL on CEUS

EUROSON SCHOOLSs on CEUS have been implemented in 2008. Dr. Weskott welcomed to a successful course in Hannover. Many colleagues could not participated due to the early completed course but future courses will be offered in many countries all over Europe (please contact our website www.efsumb.org). Please also note the website announcements for actual and future activities including the EUROSON School and do not hesitate to contact EFSUMB for comments, considerations and improvements.

Turning now to the future, we have the EUROSON 2009 in Edinburgh (6th of December - 9th of December, deadline of abstract submission 21st August 2009: and WFSUMB meeting in Sydney 2009 (30th of August- 3rd of September, deadline of abstract submission: Friday 23 January 2009), please submit your papers. I hope that many of you will be able to join us at one or all of these exciting venues.

Please refer to EFSUMB and to the Honorary secretary for support and discussion. The future still looks bright.

Cordially,

Christoph F. Dietrich

Honorary Secretary EFSUMB

eMail: [e-mail]

EUROSON 2009

Abstract submission deadline 21 August 2009