Honorary Secretary's Report

 

The year gone - from 1.1.2006 to 31.12.2006 - was again an eventful and rich year for the growing EFSUMB community. Under the presidency of David Evans, the Executive Bureau was busy with all correspondence and other paper-, email-, and phone work, and various meetings comprising one to two days. In addition, the EUROSON congress - as a joint congress with the Italian Society - was the traditional scenario for the Board of Director's meeting with bids for the EUROSON congress in 2010 - which in the end was won by the Danish Society for the wonderful city of Copenhagen, with the competition of Nice, Athens, Jerusalem and Istanbul. Congratulations to Denmark again, and we now welcome for bids for 2012!

The year 2011 will be dedicated to another central event in global ultrasound congress activities: the WFUMB World Congress for 2011 - now held every two years, too - will be held in Vienna. This decision was made at the superb World Congress of Ultrasound in Seoul ("A better World with Ultrasound") - congratulations to Austria, and to Europe. The next World congress of WFUMB in 2009 will be held in Sydney.

Some changes in the bylaws had been decided by the Board of Directors and became effective in 2006. The most significant change is probably the reduction of the period of office for all EFSUMB officers from three to two years. Other bylaw changes referred to Bylaw number 1 "Regulations for Organising A Euroson Congress" point 11b, where it was agreed to reduce the percentage of the financial surplus due to EFSUMB by the member society; and point 23, defining the maximum liability in case of a financial loss. Bylaw number 7 "Regulations for the organisation of an ultrasound teaching course of the EUROSON School" and Bylaw number 9, Education and Professional Standards Committee reflect the change in responsibility of accrediting the Euroson School from the Executive Bureau to the Education Committee. All the new updated bylaws can be examined at the EFSUMB website: www.efsumb.org.

Certificates of membership were produced and are now available - each year - on request for each member (distribution by the national society bureaux/secretaries once the membership fees have been paid). The certificates are considered to be another attractive sign of being a member of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, the biggest community of multidisciplinary ultrasound societies from a total of 28 nations comprising now (January 2007) a total of 19671 members.

The official Journal of our Federation - The European Journal of Ultrasound/Ultraschall in der Medizin - further increased its impact factor to now considerable 1.7, thus underlining with its number of subscribers - more than 12,000 - and six issues per year - a leading role in interdisciplinary ultrasound scientific research and communication.

The EUROSON congress at Bologna from 15 - 19th September 2006 - together with our Italian friends - again demonstrated with some 2000 participants a lively development of both scientific and clinically applied ultrasonography, with a remarkable industrial exhibition. EFSUMB was represented with the traditional lectures dedicated to the EUROSON lecture, the Therese Planiol, the DEGUM lecture, the Hans Henrik Holm lecture, the Young Investigator's award won by M.E. Frijlink on the topic of " Harmonic Intravascular Ultrasound". Moreover, special sessions were routinely held with the EFSUMB Industrial Board and by the EFSUMB committees on safety, publication, education and professional standards - altogether really fruitful and progressive activities for the EFSUMB delegates. For the first time, it was possible to grant continuous medical education credit points in cooperation with other European authorities.

After a successful and active 2006, we are looking forward to the events of 2007, starting with an update on contrast enhanced ultrasonography at Rotterdam on 26 January and further highlights such as the EUROSON/Dreiländertreffen at Leipzig in late October.

Finally, it is simply true that all societies and federations can only be as good as the total of their members - so again, all our EFSUMB members are kindly asked to contribute both at a national level and on the European scene in clinical and in research ultrasonography.

Membership Status at 31 January 2007

Prof Lucas Greiner

EFSUMB Honorary Secretary