Ultrasound Essentials 2027 brings together internationally renowned speakers to share valuable scientific insights on key aspects of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology, ranging from fundamental concepts to specialised applications.

Steered by the joint expertise and guidance of Prof Tom Bourne, Prof Kypros Nicolaides and Prof Liona Poon, ISUOG and the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) are proud to present Ultrasound Essentials 2027.
 
This is a live, online event with free access for all clinicians working in low-resource settings, which will take place online on 29-30 January 2027. Now in its sixth year, Ultrasound Essentials 2027 aims to empower clinicians by providing essential knowledge and practical skills in ultrasound for obstetrics and gynecology. 
 
Of the delegates who provided feedback for the 2026 event, 100% said they would attend this event again. Ultrasound Essentials 2027 will endeavour to build on this standard of excellence. We encourage all clinicians working in low-resource settings to take part, for free, in this educational and inspiring event, which plays a hugely important part in both organisations’ missions:

 

       
To improve women’s health through the provision, advancement and dissemination of the highest quality education, standards and research information around ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology.
     
 
To improve the health of pregnant women and their babies through research and training in fetal medicine.

Registration

Please note that registration will open in mid-November. This online event is free and only accessible to those based in low-resource settings. Attendees can expect to:
 
  • Access world-class expertise for free: hear from leading experts, including top doctors and clinicians in the field.
  • Overcome barriers to education: gain insights and resources that are often inaccessible in low-resource regions.
  • Create global impact: join an initiative dedicated to making education equitable and available to underserved communities.
  • Fuel your professional growth: supplement your development with cutting-edge knowledge and best practices.
  • Benefit from exclusive on-demand access: enjoy six months of access to the event recording after the live sessions.

Course chairs

Professor Tom Bourne

ISUOG President 2020 - 2022, Virtual World Congress Technical Congress Chair 2020 and 2021, 2022 World Congress Co-Chair, Executive Committee, Finance & Risk Committee, Nominations Committee

Professor Tom Bourne was ISUOG President between 2020 and 2022 and is curently Chair in Gynaecology at Imperial College London, Hon Consultant Gynaecologist at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea hospital and Visiting Professor at KU Leuven in Belgium. He is an authority on managing early pregnancy complications, emergency gynaecology and gynaecological ultrasonography. He trained in ultrasound at Kings College Hospital in London. He subsequently worked at the University of Göteborg, Sweden as Medical Research Council visiting scientist, Hamar in Norway, and Leuven in Belgium. He was appointed senior lecturer and consultant gynaecologist at St George's University Hospital London before moving to Imperial College. He has edited seven books and published over 400 papers. He sits on the management committee of the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research. He is medical advisor and trustee of the patient group, the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. He is immediate Past-President of the UK Association of Early Pregnancy Units. He is co-founder and CEO of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) group and sits on the steering committees of several large multicentre international trials. He is founder member of the RCOG task force on “supporting our doctors”. He is honorary fellow of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, honorary member of the Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine and honorary member of the Brazilian and Hungarian Ultrasound Societies.

His principal research interest is diagnostics in early pregnancy and gynaecology including the IOTA, IETA, IDEA and MUSA studies, microbiome, metabolomics, novel biomarkers, and AI. His interests include the psychology of pregnancy loss and physician welfare including studies with the BMA and RCOG.

Country: UK

Language: English

Field: Gynaecology

Specialties: Early Pregnancy Care, Emergency Gynaecology, Ultrasound in Oncology, Gynaecological Ultrasonography, Physician Wellbeing

Selected Notable Publications:

Sporadic miscarriage: evidence to provide effective care. Coomarasamy A, Gallos ID, Papadopoulou A, Dhillon-Smith RK, Al-Memar M, Brewin J, Christiansen OB, Stephenson MD, Oladapo OT, Wijeyaratne CN, Small R, Bennett PR, Regan L, Goddijn M, Devall AJ, Bourne T, Brosens JJ, Quenby S.

Lancet. 2021 May 1;397(10285):1668-1674. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00683-8. Epub 2021 Apr 27.

Validation of models to diagnose ovarian cancer in patients managed surgically or conservatively: multicentre cohort study.

Van Calster B, Valentin L, Froyman W, Landolfo C, Ceusters J, Testa AC, Wynants L, Sladkevicius P, Van Holsbeke C, Domali E, Fruscio R, Epstein E, Franchi D, Kudla MJ, Chiappa V, Alcazar JL, Leone FPG, Buonomo F, Coccia ME, Guerriero S, Deo N, Jokubkiene L, Savelli L, Fischerová D, Czekierdowski A, Kaijser J, Coosemans A, Scambia G, Vergote I, Bourne T, Timmerman D.

BMJ. 2020 Jul 30;370:m2614. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m2614.

Posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression following miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy: a multicenter, prospective, cohort study.

Farren J, Jalmbrant M, Falconieri N, Mitchell-Jones N, Bobdiwala S, Al-Memar M, Tapp S, Van Calster B, Wynants L, Timmerman D, Bourne T.

Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2020 Apr; 222(4):367.e1-367.e22. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2019.10.102.

Risk of complications in patients with conservatively managed ovarian tumours (IOTA5): a 2-year interim analysis of a multicentre, prospective, cohort study.

Froyman W, Landolfo C, De Cock B, Wynants L, Sladkevicius P, Testa AC, Van Holsbeke C, Domali E, Fruscio R, Epstein E, Dos Santos Bernardo MJ, Franchi D, Kudla MJ, Chiappa V, Alcazar JL, Leone FPG, Buonomo F, Hochberg L, Coccia ME, Guerriero S, Deo N, Jokubkiene L, Kaijser J, Coosemans A, Vergote I, Verbakel JY, Bourne T, Van Calster B, Valentin L, Timmerman D.

Lancet Oncol. 2019 Mar; 20(3): 448-458. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(18)30837-4.

Defining safe criteria to diagnose miscarriage: prospective observational multicentre study. Preisler J, Kopeika J, Ismail L, Vathanan V, Farren J, Abdallah Y, Battacharjee P, Van Holsbeke C, Bottomley C, Gould D, Johnson S, Stalder C, Van Calster B, Hamilton J, Timmerman D, Bourne T.

BMJ. 2015 Sep 23; 351:h4579. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h4579.

Evaluating the risk of ovarian cancer before surgery using the ADNEX model to differentiate between benign, borderline, early and advanced stage invasive, and secondary metastatic tumours: prospective multicentre diagnostic studies. Van Calster B, Van Hoorde K, Valentin L, Testa AC, Fischerova D, Van Holsbeke C, Savelli L, Franchi D, Epstein E, Kaijser J, Van Belle V, Czekierdowski A, Guerriero S, Fruscio R, Lanzani C, Scala F, Bourne T, Timmerman D; International Ovarian Tumour Analysis Group.

BMJ. 2014 Oct 15;349:g5920. doi: 10.1136/bmj.g5920.

Diagnostic criteria for nonviable pregnancy early in the first trimester. Doubilet PM, Benson CB, Bourne T, Blaivas M; Society of Radiologists in Ultrasound Multispecialty Panel on Early First Trimester Diagnosis of Miscarriage and Exclusion of a Viable Intrauterine Pregnancy, Barnhart KT, Benacerraf BR, Brown DL, Filly RA, Fox JC, Goldstein SR, Kendall JL, Lyons EA, Porter MB, Pretorius DH, Timor-Tritsch IE.

N Engl J Med. 2013 Oct 10; 369(15): 1443-51. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1302417.

Limitations of current definitions of miscarriage using mean gestational sac diameter and crown-rump length measurements: a multicenter observational study. Abdallah Y, Daemen A, Kirk E, Pexsters A, Naji O, Stalder C, Gould D, Ahmed S, Guha S, Syed S, Bottomley C, Timmerman D, Bourne T.

Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2011 Nov; 38(5): 497-502. doi: 10.1002/uog.10109.

He is President of the UK Association of Early Pregnancy Units (AEPU), Trustee of the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust and on the steering committee of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) trial.

Read more

Executive Committee, Finance & Risk Committee, Nominations Committee, Scientific Comittee, China Task Force, UOG Editorial Board

Professor Liona Poon is an Academic Subspecialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine, devoted in improving maternal and fetal health. She has had a prolific research output throughout her clinical and research posts, including over 130 peer-reviewed publications in high impact international journals. In the last 10 years she has focused her research on establishing a programme for effective early prediction and prevention of preeclampsia, a major cause of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. With her success in developing a first-trimester prediction model for preeclampsia using maternal risk factors, ultrasound, blood pressure and biochemical markers, and on Aspirin prophylaxis against preeclampsia, her goal in the next 10 years is to improve obstetric care worldwide, through clinical research and education. 

Notable Publications:
Aspire trial: incidence of preterm preeclampsia in patients fulfulling ACOG and NICE criteria according to risk by the FMF algorithm. Poon LC, Rolnik DL, Tan MY, Delgado JL, Tsokaki T, Akolekar R, Singh M, Andrade W, Efeturk T, Jani JC, Plasencia W, Papaioannou G, Blazquez AR, Carbone IF, Wright D, Nikolaides KH.
Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol 2018 Jan 30. doi: 10.1002/uog.19019 [Epub ahead of print]

Aspirin versus Placebo in Pregnancies at High Risk of Preterm Preeclampsia. Rolnik DL, Wright D, Poon LC, O'Gorman N, Syngelaki A, de Paco Matallana C, Akolekar R, Cicero S, Janga D, Singh M, Molina FS, Persico N, Jani JC, Plasencia W, Papaioannou G, Tennebaum Gavish K, Meiri H, Gizurarson S, Maclagan K, Nicolaides K.H.
New England Journal Medicine 2017, 2017 Jun 28. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1704559. [Epub ahead of print]

Country: China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester; fetal biometry and wellbeing; fetal anomalies screening; aneuploidy screening; fetal anomalies; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; multiple pregnancy; preeclampsia; preterm delivery; fetal growth; detection of fetal and neonatal growth abnormalities; ultrasound on the labour ward

Languages: English; Chinese (Mandarin); Chinese (Cantonese)

Read more

Program 

Please note that we are currently working on building the program. The first draft of the program will be published soon. 
 

Day 1, 29 January 2027: Gynecology and early pregnancy

Day 2, 30 January 2027: Obstetrics

 
All sessions will be recorded and will remain available on-demand to registered delegates for 6 months, until 30 July 2027 at 23:59 BST. During this time, registration will also remain open.

Who should attend?

Ultrasound Essentials, developed specifically for those based in low-resource settings, is a course for clinicians and maternity care professionals who want to learn more about ultrasound imaging for improving women’s health. More detailed information about eligibility will be published in due course.

Share