ISUOG conveys several awards to worthy recipients through different channels. The Board agreed in Vienna, 2017, to appoint an Honours Committee to oversee the decisions for all awards, to recommend on amendments to current process or to suggest new awards, and thereafter to ensure the appropriate processes for recognition of all award recipients.
Committee Chair
Executive Committee, Nominations Committee, 3D Special Interest Group
Reem S. Abu-Rustum, MD, FACOG, FACS, FAIUM, RDMS
Professor & Director of Ultrasound Services, Education and Research at the University of Florida
Prof. Reem S. Abu-Rustum obtained her medical degree and completed her residency training in obstetrics & gynecology at the University of Florida (USA). She is a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and the American College of Surgeons. She is certified by the Fetal Medicine Foundation in first and second trimester ultrasound.
Currently, Reem is Professor and Director of Ultrasound Services, Education and Research in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Florida. Within ISUOG she is President, Past-Chair of the Basic Training Sub Committee and past Ambassador to Lebanon and Outreach in the Middle East. She is a board member-at-large of the Fetal Heart Society and a member of their Membership Committee.
Reem was a board member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and Co-Chair of their Annual Convention Committee. She is the past Vice-Chair of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine Patient Education Committee and was a member of their Education and Global Health Committees. She was Co-Founder and President of SANA Medical NGO dedicated to obstetrical care within an outreach setting in Lebanon. She is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades and has received the Presidential Award of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, the Clinical Excellence Award from the College of Medicine Council at the University of Florida, the CREOG National Award for Excellence in Resident Education and is a member of the Society of Teaching Scholars at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She has a special interest in the first trimester fetus and the fetal heart, ultrasound education and global outreach. She has served on two ISUOG outreach missions to Sudan and has authored the text "A Practical Guide to 3D Ultrasound".
Notable publications:
- Abu-Rustum RS, Smith E, Szlachetka K, Zarudskaya O. A Practical Approach to Incorporating the Detailed First Trimester Ultrasound Examination into Clinical Practice. J Ultrasound Med. https://doi.org/10.1002/jum.70044
- Abu-Rustum RS, Pierre K, Dyrda M, Smith E, Abchee N, Bilardo CM. Developmental Changes of the Coronary Sinus Between the First and Second Trimesters: A Pilot Study. J Ultrasound Med. 2024 Nov;43(11):2163-2168. doi: 10.1002/jum.16547. Epub 2024 Aug 8. PMID: 39115155.
- Abu-Rustum, RS, Berwick, M, Heft, J. Successful Implementation of the AIUM Standardized Four-Year Residency Ultrasound Curriculum in Obstetrics and Gynecology: Lessons Learned and Way Forward. J Ultrasound Med. 2024 Jun;43(6):1109-1119. doi: 10.1002/jum.16439. Epub 2024 Mar 3. PMID: 38433458.
- Smith E, Pierre K, Acevedo A, Egerman R, Rajderkar D, Abu-Rustum RS. First-trimester cavum veli interpositi: prevalence and natural history. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2024 Apr;63(4):502-506. doi: 10.1002/uog.27523. PMID: 37902788.
- Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF. The 3 sweep approach for fetal anatomic assessment in the outreach setting. Journal of Fetal Medicine 2017; 4(1): 25-30.
- Abu-Rustum RS. A Practical Guide to 3D Ultrasound. First Edition. CRC Press. 9 Dec 2014.
- Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF, Abu-Rustum SE. Reference values for the right and left fetal choroid plexus at 11-13 weeks: an early sign of ‘developmental’ laterality? J. Ultrasound Med 2013; 32: 1623-1629.
- Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF, Abu-Rustum SE. Defining the spatial relationships between 8 anatomic planes in the 11+6 – 13+6 week fetus. Prenatal Diagnosis 2012; 32: 875-882.
- Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF, Abu-Rustum SE. Learning curve and factors influencing the feasibility of performing fetal echocardiography at the time of the first trimester scan. J. Ultrasound Med 2011; 30: 695-700.
Country: USA
Field: Obstetrics
Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester; aneuploidy screening; fetal heart; 3D & 4D ultrasound; basic training; the first trimester fetus; ultrasound in medical education.
Languages: English, Arabic, Italian
Committee Members
Honours Committee member
Maya Al-Memar is a Consultant Gynaecologist at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, with specialist clinical interests in complex benign gynaecology, acute diagnostic services including early pregnancy and acute gynaecology, rapid access for suspected gynaecological cancer, and paediatric & adolescent gynaecology. She completed her training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in North-West London including specialty training at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, and St Mary’s Hospital. Having worked in the largest gynaecology & reproductive medicine service in London at Imperial, she has experience in managing complex patients. Her focus is to provide the best possible care for women using high quality diagnostics ultrasound skills to streamline care. She graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine with first class honours in 2007, where she also completed her PhD and is now an honorary clinical lecturer. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals. She currently has on-going research projects in the fields of early pregnancy, miscarriage, ovarian cysts and use of ultrasound to improve diagnosis of ovarian masses.
Country: UK
Field: Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Specialties: Early pregnancy and gynaecology imaging, adnexal masses, paediatric and adolescent gynaecology
Languages: English, Arabic
Ian Donald Gold Medal Sub-Committee Chair
Ahmet Baschat MB BCh, FACOG, is director of the Center for Fetal Therapy and professor in the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Dr. Baschat received his undergraduate and medical degrees from The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He earned his doctorate in medicine from the University of Lübeck, where he also completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology. After completing additional residencies at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and at University of Maryland Medical Center, and a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine at UMMC, he went on to develop its Center for Advanced Fetal Care, and was professor and director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the Section of Fetal Therapy at the University of Maryland, before joining Johns Hopkins in 2014. His areas of clinical expertise include prenatal diagnosis and therapy of a wide range of fetal conditions, including twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) including TAPS, SIUGR and TRAP, as well as other complications of monochorionic twin pregnancies.
Dr. Helen Feltovich (USA) is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist and System Medical Director of Obstetrics for North Memorial /Sanford Health in Minneapolis, where she focuses on advancing high-quality, accessible obstetric care in urban and rural areas alike. She is also Honorary Fellow in Medical Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research has included nearly two decades of NIH-funded investigation of quantitative ultrasound technologies and cervical biomechanics to better understand the mechanisms of parturition and improve prediction and prevention of preterm birth.
More recently, the work of her multidisciplinary research collaborative has expanded to the application of artificial intelligence, with the goal of expanding access to expert care and improve prediction of pregnancy outcome. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, given hundreds of invited talks, served as principal investigator on national and international research initiatives, and been a regular member of the NIH Clinical and Translational Imaging Science Study Section.
Helen has been involved with ISUOG for many years. She currently serves as Chair of the ISUOG Scientific Committee, working with colleagues from around the world to develop the Society's scientific program and advance its educational and research mission. She is committed to fostering global collaboration, innovation in ultrasound education, and the dissemination of evidence-based practice to improve outcomes for mothers and babies.
Country: USA
Field: Obstetrics, Imaging Science
Specialties: High-risk pregnancy, obstetric imaging, preterm birth, quantitative ultrasound imaging
Languages: English
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)
Stuart Campbell Award Sub-Committee Chair, Honours Committee Member
Honours Committee member
Prof. Ritsuko Kimata Pooh was born in Osaka, Japan in 1960. She graduated from Law Department of Keio University, Tokyo, and thereafter graduated from the Medical School of Tokushima University with social, legal and ethical viewpoints. After her graduation from medical school in 1990, she has dedicated most of her time to clinical research and investigation in fetal medicine and perinatology. She has especially introduced the most sophisticated fetal neuroimaging from 1996 by using transvaginal sonography, three dimensional ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. She established CRIFM clinical research institute of fetal medicine in Osaka in 2007. Her recent study of medullary vein development and neuronal migration disorder of fetal brain are worthy of note, and she received the Alfred Alfred Kratochwil Award at the ISUOG Congress in 2011, Lifetime achievement award in WCPM (World Congress in Perinatal Medicine) in 2015, and Sir William Liley medal in International Congress on Fetus as a Patient in 2016. Her remarkable research on fetal brain has been internationally approved by perinatologists as well as neurologists and neurosurgeons. She published more than 70 original scientific papers 150 review articles and the books; An Atlas of Fetal Central Nervous System, Diagnosis and Management in 2003, Fetal Neurology in 2009, Atlas of Advanced Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2015.
Her early detection of fetal abnormalities in ‘Sonoembryology’ can be described as art of science in the uterus. Furthermore, she has been establishing a new field of Sonogenetics, combining detailed sonogram with cytogenetics and molecular genetics from 2009 and performing quite a number of invasive genetic procedures including more than 1,500s CVS and 300 amniocenteses per year. In the era of prenatal diagnoses with advanced molecular genetics and maternal serum with cfDNA, she has emphasized the importance of observing fetuses by ultrasound. She established the clinical genetic laboratory (Ritz Medical Clinical Lab.) in Osaka with the aim of ultimate sonogenetics in 2011. She has truly been one of the international executives in research as well as education in a field of perinatology.
Notable publications:
Ritsuko K. Pooh, Kohei Shiota, Asim Kurjak. Imaging of the human embryo with magnetic resonance imaging microscopy and high-resolution transvaginal 3-dimensional sonography: human embryology in the 21st century. AJOG. 2011;204(1):77-9
POOH RK. Sonoembryology by 3D HDlive silhouette ultrasound - what is added by the "see-through fashion"? Journal of Perinatal Medicine. Mar 2016; 44(2): 139-48.
Country: Japan
Field: Obstetrics
Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester, aneuploidy screening, fetal anomalies screening, fetal anomalies, 3D/4D ultrasound, early pregnancy, genetics, fetal brain (fetal neurology)
Languages: Japanese, English
Honours Committee member
Prof. Thierry Van den Bosch defended his PhD in 2007 on the diagnosis of endometrial disease. His clinical research focuses on the diagnosis of endometrial and myometrial pathology, endometriosis and fertility exploration. He has published over 150 papers and has been over 100 times invited speaker at international conferences in English, Dutch and French.
He completed his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the KU Leuven (Belgium) and at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). In 1992 he was appointed consultant at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Unit of Gynecologic Oncology, of the University of Stellenbosch and Tygerberg Hospital (South-Africa). In 1994 he moved back to Belgium. He worked as gynecologist at the Regional Hospital RZ Tienen, consultant UZ Leuven and KU Leuven and became the Head of department in RZ Tienen.
He currently works at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospital UZ Leuven, at the Faculty of Medicine, KU Leuven, and is Senior Clinical Investigator of the Scientific Research Fund (FWO) Flanders, Belgium.
Country: Belgium
Field: Gynecology
Specialties: Gynecological ultrasound
Languages: English; French; Dutch
Honours Committee member
Dr. Lina Youssef is a specialist and postdoctoral researcher in Maternal Fetal Medicine in BCNatal – Fetal Medicine Research Center, IDIBAPS, Hospital Clinic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona, Spain. Her special interests are preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction focusing on Ultrasound, Doppler and biomarkers. She holds an International joint PhD degree with distinction from three European Universities (University of Barcelona, Lund University and Leuven University). She holds also a Diploma in biostatistics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Lina is the scientific coordinator of the Master’s program in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Fetal Medicine Barcelona Foundation in collaboration with the University of Barcelona. She has been involved in ISUOG activities since 2017 as a young ambassador, content reviewer and a member of Online Education Subcommittee. Lina also serves on a regular basis as an expert reviewer for the Spanish National Health Authority as well as for international research projects. She participates regularly as a speaker in international courses and congresses.
Country: Spain
Field: Obstetrics; Imaging; Fetal Medicine
Specialties: Preeclampsia; fetal growth restriction; fetal biometry and wellbeing; maternal and fetal Doppler; fetal anomalies; prenatal screening; multiple pregnancy
Languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, French
Secretariat Liaison
VOL / PBP