EFSUMB Newsletter meets Germany

Table of Contents

Population: 82 million

Capital city: Berlin

EFSUMB Members: 7850

Prof. Dieter Nürnberg

The interview with President of DEGUM Prof Dieter Nürnberg by Chairman of EFSUMB Publications Committee Professor Michael Bachmann Nielsen took place in August 2009.

Dieter Nürnberg is the President of the DEGUM, the German Ultrasound society, since 2008. Living and working in the small town of Neuruppin just north of Berlin, Dieter Nürnberg is a gastroenterologist and the chief of the department for gastroenterology and oncology in the district hospital (800 beds), a teaching hospital of the Charite-Berlin "I started to work with ultrasound in the GDR in 1982".

How ultrasound is organized in Germany

In Germany most medical specialties are using ultrasound and it is part of the medical training curriculum. Accreditation for performing ultrasound in a general practice is given by the association of the German statutory health insurance (SHI). "An estimate would be that in Germany nearly 50,000 doctors use US in their private clinic and the same numbers of doctors use it in their hospital."

DEGUM with its almost 8000 members is the biggest interdisciplinary medical scientific society in Germany. The majority of members are medical doctors, engineers, physicists, other scientists and also veterinaries. "In Germany we do not have technicians, because the law requires that to perform ultrasound you have to be a medical doctor."

DEGUM-Echo

DEGUM has its newsletter "DEGUM-Echo" printed in every issue of Ultraschall in der Medizin. "In this way each member will receive the newsletter every second month."

US training in Germany

The DEGUM created the three-step system of ultrasound certification and education. DEGUM organizes courses in all specialties from basic levels to advanced levels. The courses are composed of 50 % practical work and 50 % lectures and the course instructors are qualified.

"The young doctors take part in the courses and they utilise their newly learnt experience in their daily routine in their own hospital. If the doctors want to use US in their own practice they have to pass a test performed by the Resident Doctors Association (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung)."

Website

"In our website www.degum.de, you will find information about the organization, courses and additional education material. The website is at the moment in the process of updating."

National congresses - Dreiländertreffen

Every autumn we have our annual ultrasound congress called "Dreiländertreffen". The name represents the joint meeting of the German, Austrian and Swiss ultrasound societies (DEGUM, ÖGUM and SGUM). The location rotates between the 3 countries and between 1000 and 2000 participants attend each meeting. "This year weŽll meet us in Salzburg in Austria and the 2010 meeting will be in Mainz in Germany." "The DEGUM-members are organized in sections and interdisciplinary study groups. The biggest sections are gynecology, internal medicine and radiology. But also the pediatrics, urologists or cardiologists have their own groups."

EUROSON and WFUMB meeting in 2011 in Vienna

In 2011 the Dreiländertreffen will be held in conjunction with the Euroson and WFUMB in Vienna. "The Austrian Society is the organizer but we help them in the committee-work and in congress organisation. There is an academy of the Dreiländertreffen consisting of experts from the three countries, who are integrated in the organisation work.

The WFUMB 2011 meeting will be August 26-29 in Vienna.

Special hobby of DEGUM president is sonorun, first time 2007 in Euroson Leipzig initiated by Volker Keim