Dear Colleagues – EFSUMB Recently Joined in a Collaboration with the European Society of Radiology (ESR)

Meetings between the two Societies have already been held in Vienna, both during the WFUMB / EFSUMB Congress and during the congress of ESR. The first combined scientific session will be at the Austria Center in Vienna, during the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2013. It will be on Monday, March 11, 2013; 08:30–10:00; Room Z, and will be entitled:

„Advances in diagnostic ultrasound: better results through cooperation”

During the meetings, discussions have been held on a variety of topics. Among them the problem of archiving ultrasound images and reports. From a survey held by the ESR, it has been shown that the ultrasound images (obtained either in radiology or in clinical departments) are not always routinely saved in the hospital PACS systems and that, within the same hospital, the reports of the ultrasound examinations are often recorded in a variety of archives. It has been recognized that it may be difficult to find resources to link all US equipment to the IT hospital system and to provide enough memory to store large amounts of data, especially if video clips need to be recorded. It has also been considered that there may be problems in planning a uniform and complete storage of the examinations’ reports, since ultrasound may be used in a large variety of ways, from a stand-alone study to a simple and quick guide to a procedure or a physical exam. However, it has been agreed that availability of ultrasound images and reports for future reference is quite important in clinical practice and it has been decided that both Societies would recommend to their members to organize their ultrasonography workflow so that proper archiving of all examinations performed within each hospital would be regularly obtained.

The main aim of the collaboration between the two Societies is to further promote both clinical and radiological Ultrasound. In the following we want to suggest to our EFSUMB members the advantages of being an ESR member. The European Society of Radiology currently boasts 53,822 members in good standing from 195 countries. This makes the ESR one of the most important institutions in the field of radiology, aiming to promote radiology and highlight its importance in medicine worldwide.