The Hybrid Conference was organized by EUVEKUS – The European Ultrasound Working Group in Ambulatory Healthcare, EFSUMB endorsed and supported by WONCA Europe. The theme of the Conference, "The Point of Care Ultrasonography in Primary Medicine and Ambulatory Healthcare - Updates and Perspectives", reflects the collaboration to advance common approaches aimed at improving early diagnosis through ultrasonography techniques. Actually, when we have advanced and relatively cheap ultrasound devices and high-performance technology with artificial intelligence or smart software using updated diagnostic algorithms, it's time to complete the classic clinical examination (by history, inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation) with the new clinical-ultrasound examination that currently allows us to visualize through ultrasound most organs and tissues of the human body (US-inspection), along with electronic ultrasound palpation through ultrasonographic elastography method (US-palpation), but also with the electronic auscultation through the Doppler Triplex technique (US-auscultation) to increase the diagnostic accuracy in primary and outpatient healthcare.
In addition, this activity provided a platform for networking with many of Europe's leading experts, focusing on reviewing and assessing best practices in ultrasonography. The meeting program included presentations, hands-on training, and informal social gatherings. The feedback given by all encourages us to continue what we started ten years ago, that is to promote the dissemination, development, and education of the field of PoCUS.
Practically, as Prof. Dr. Christian Jenssen states, "let's contribute to its democratization", through a "policy statement" as stated by Prof. Dr. Shlomo Vinker, let's strengthen our good collaboration relations with the four medical organizations, namely: WONCA Europe, EFSUMB, WFUMB and EUVEKUS. We want to convey our thanks, for their extremely important support, but also our desire to contribute in a direct way to the promotion of educational means, research, and creation of curricular models for family medicine residency training soon such as the formation of PoCUS guidelines and educational levels in this field.
It was a successful event that managed to bring together many experts in the field of clinical ultrasonography, and the most important thing is that we managed to reach a consensus among the fourth medical organizations. It is extremely important because EUVEKUS as a European group, has deep ties of collaboration and support with WONCA Europe, but also with the multiple component organizations of this primary healthcare federation, namely: EURACT (THE EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF TEACHERS IN GENERAL PRACTICE/FAMILY MEDICINE), EGPRN (EUROPEAN GENERAL PRACTICE RESEARCH NETWORK), EURIPA (the European Rural and Isolated Practitioners Association), EQUIP (Quality and Safety in General Practice/Family Medicine). So, our impact is extremely important through all these European working groups through experts.
The main objective of our organization is the promotion and development of the use of clinical ultrasonography in primary and ambulatory care in particular, and we are glad that we managed to highlight the limited access for the training and education of family doctors in the field of clinical ultrasound, that unfortunately exists in many European countries. That is why we considered it essential to organize this annual event in Austria a Central European Country to provide educational bonding support. Euroson PoC-US School Vienna has already reached its 3rd edition and we will continue to organize, of course with the support of EFSUMB and WONCA Europe credited to EACCME, where we will meet the leaders of the invited organizations and to assess the situation and the progress achieved, being a central area and where clinical doctors from all over the world have free access to training in the PoC-US.
As the Local Keynote Speaker and President of EUVEKUS, we would like to express our special thanks to our exceptional speakers in the field of world ultrasonography, namely:
Prof Christian Jenssen, President of EFSUMB, Prof Shlomo Vinker, Wonca Europe President, Prof. Dr. Paul S. SIDHU, BSc MBBS MRCP FRCR DTM&H FCIRSE FAIUM (Hon.) WFUMB Treasurer, Prof. Dr. Vito CANTISANI, MD, PhD EFSUMB HONORARY TREASURER, SIUMB President, Prof. Dr. Ioan SPOREA, WFUMB COUNCIL MEMBER, Dr. Peter SIGMUND, MD, President of the Steirischen Akademie für Allgemeinmedizin, Dr. Dominique Amy, MD, EFSUMB Breast US, Elastography Expert, President of École d'Échographie Sans Frontières, Prof. Dr. Dana STOIAN, MD, Ph.D.,Dr. Sc, Dr. Mateusz KOSIAK, Co-Founder of EDUSON School Poland, Dr. Gergely AGOSTON, Vice President of the Working Group of Hungarian Assoc. of Cardiovascular Imaging.
During the Euroson POCUS School Conference, there was a Round Table entitled *The future of using POC-US in ambulatory healthcare from the perspective of professional organizations: WONCA EUROPE, EFSUMB, WFUMB, EUVEKUS* from which it emerged that there is a need for a common position of our organizations to support access in European countries to education in clinical ultrasonography for both family doctors and specialist doctors from the ambulatory healthcare, as well as a rethinking of training programs and curriculum at different levels of competence.
We would like to thank all participants for their important support in carrying out this idea of multidisciplinary collaboration, and for promoting the development and use of Point of Care Ultrasonography in primary and ambulatory healthcare at the European level.
The affirmation of a policy statement by Wonca Europe regarding the recommendation of the use of PoC-US in the training of residents and future family doctors represents a decision that proves extremely useful and important for increasing the quality of medical practice in primary care, and the diagnostic accuracy for our patients. It is also proven that in addition to increasing the quality of the medical act, and the positive results in terms of patient management, there is a decrease in costs in the medical system and a real relief of the emergency system, proven during this period by Covid Pandemic 19, when patient mobility has become extremely low, especially in remote and rural areas.
We managed to achieve better communication between our organizations and to know each other, but especially to gather the ranks, and to have a closer collaboration and future participation of family doctors at the European level, which currently represents almost half of the total number of physicians at the European level.
You can review our ROUND TABLE entitled "The future of using PoCUS in ambulatory healthcare from the perspective of professional organizations: WONCA EUROPE, EFSUMB, WFUMB, EUVEKUS” through the following link: https://youtu.be/V5dyhfKqcEA
Finally, we would like to invite you to participate with us in the upcoming
Euroson PoC-US School Conference, 4th Edition, which will take place in Vienna on September 9-10, 2023.
Best Regards,
Dr Mihai Iacob, MD.
EUVEKUS President.
http://eurosonpocus.com/