Overview

Prof. Dirk Timmerman  is a Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at KU Leuven, Belgium, and Clinical Head of benign gynecology and early pregnancy UZ Leuven. He is also Vice-chair of the Medical Council at the University Hospitals Leuven and Senior Clinical Investigator of the Scientific Research Fund (FWO) Flanders. He is coordinator of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) collaborative group, including more than 50 centres for ovarian cancer diagnosis throughout the world. The IOTA group aims to develop new algorithms and liquid biopsies to diagnose and detect ovarian cancer and provide optimal care of adnexal tumors (included patients n>22,500). He has been awarded the Inbev Baillet-Latour Prize for Clinical Research 2014, Fellowship ad eundem from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG, London, 2014) and the William J. Fry Memorial Lecture Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine  2016 at AIUM Annual Convention, New York.

Country: Belgium

Field: Gynecology

Specialties: Gynecological ultrasound; gynecological oncology; early pregnancy

Languages: English; Dutch; French

Dr. Lior Drukker is a senior consultant in the Fetal Medicine Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Rabin Medical Center, Israel, and an honorary research fellow at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford. He holds an M.D. as well as B.Med.Sc from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Before studying medicine, he worked for five years in IT (Information Technology) as a developer of software to hardware interface and infrastructure.

His primary clinical and research interests are ultrasonography in prenatal diagnosis, maternal-fetal medicine, automation of ultrasound, and computer vision image analysis. His main research project is the Perception Ultrasound by Learning Sonographer Experience (PULSE) project, aiming to learn to develop novel imaging analysis (using machine learning and computer vision methods) that will aid operators and improve diagnostic pregnancy imaging, ultimately seeking to automate ultrasound analysis for clinical purposes. His research interests also include the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) - Machine Learning (ML) to teach a machine how sonographers scan. His additional clinical and research interests are anomaly scanning, quality improvement, and cutting-edge ultrasound technologies.

Country: Israel

Field: Obstetrics; Fetal Medicine; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning

Specialties: Pregnancy care; Fetal scanning; Early anomaly screening; Third-trimester screening; Fetal growth; Fetal invasive procedures; Multiple gestations

Languages: English, Hebrew

Dr Helen Feltovich's clinical appointment is with Intermontain Healthcare in Salt Lake City, Utah (USA). She also conducts research on developing ultrasound technologies and preterm birth in developing and developed areas.

Publications:

Feltovitch H, Gall TJ. Quantative imaging of the cervix: setting the bar. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2013 Feb 41 (2): 121-8

Myers KM, Feltovitch H, Mazza e etal, The mechanical role of the cervix during pregnancy. J Biomech 2015; Mar 11 (epub ahead of print)

Country: USA

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal Anomaly Screening 1T and 2T; fetal anomalies screening; aneuploidy screening; fetal anomalies; fetal growth restriction; safety in ultrasound; fetal growth; detection of fetal and neonatal growth abnormalities in low and middle income countries. 

Languages: English

Dr Anita Moon-Grady, director of the Fetal Cardiovascular Program at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, uses her training in pediatric cardiology and neonatal/perinatal medicine to raise awareness and increase detection of fetal heart problems. Working in concert with the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center she coordinates care for pregnancies affected by fetal heart disease or dysfunction, whether intervention is necessary before, during or immediately after birth. Her research focuses on non-invasive imaging modalities for investigation of normal and abnormal cardiac function in patients with congenital heart disease and fetuses with congenital heart disease and cardiac compromise, as well as fetuses with cardiac dysfunction due to non-cardiac causes.

Dr. Moon-Grady earned a medical degree from Stanford University, where she also earned a Dean’s Award for research in human genetics. At the UC Davis she completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in neonatal/perinatal medicine. Her fellowship in pediatric cardiology was completed at UCSF. She is a member of the American Society of Echocardiography and the American Medical Association. She has been elected fellow of the American College of Cardiology, fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography and served on the Board for the Pediatric Council of the American Society of Echocardiography. She is also a founding member of the steering committee for the International Fetal Cardiac Intervention Registry and the UCSF steering committee representative to the North American Fetal Therapy Network (NAFTNet).  She is the Vice-President and a Board member of the non-profit Fetal Heart Society and Chair of the Ultrasound Practice Accreditation Committee for the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.