2nd ISUOG Taipei Approved course and 7th Taiwan Maternal Fetal Medicine Society Annual Congress

Vincenzo Berghella is originally from Pescara, Italy, where he moved after high school to attend Manhattanville College, New York, USA. He did medical school at Thomas Jefferson University (TJU), in Philadelphia; Ob-Gyn Residency at New York Downtown Hospital in Manhattan, New York City, and Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) Fellowship at TJU, in Philadelphia, where he remained and is now Director of the MFM Division and Fellowship Program.

Vincenzo Berghella (VB) has authored over 350 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, is the editor or co-editor of medical textbooks such as ‘Obstetric Evidence Based Guidelines’ (in 3rd edition), ‘Maternal Fetal Evidence Based Guidelines’ (in 3rd edition), ‘Evidence Based Labor and Delivery’, ‘Obstetrics: normal and abnormal pregnancies’, and ‘Operative Obstetrics.’ He is also the author of over 40 other books (see www.amazon.com). VB has been a member and leader (chairman) of several Committees of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), is an Oral Examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, is a Past-President of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM), and is a Board member of the SMFM Foundation. He is Associate Editor for the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG), Editor in chief of AJOG MFM (Founding Editor), Editor for the Journal of Maternal Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, and Associate Editor for the Cochrane Review. He works as a clinician (50% of the time) at TJU, educator, and clinical researcher. His research interests are in high-risk pregnancy, in particular, but not limited to prediction and prevention of preterm birth, and management of labor and delivery.
 

"I have served in various capacities with ISUOG for over two decades. ISUOG provides an wonderful opportunity for all of us to improve the level of clinical practice, education, and research initiatives in Women’s Health Imaging through a global outreach effort that is second to none."

Part of the ISUOG China Task Force local leadership team along with Prof. Yuxin Jiang and Prof. Jiawei Tian.

Country: China

Field: "I have an absolute commitment to ultrasound education and since 2012 I have held an annual ISUOG Approved course - the first three were in Beijing and from 2015 we have been going to other provinces. These have been attracting around 400 – 500 delegates, and from this I have introduced around 300 people each year to the Society." 

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