Read the latest letter from ISUOG President, Prof. Tom Bourne, about the ISUOG Virtual World Congress, our special offer on Congress registration for delegates from low resource countries, latest from our journal and other upcoming events

Dear Colleagues,

It has been July since my last newsletter, which reflects total indolence on my side. I made an executive decision to “be a bit lazy” over August, and this seems to have drifted on through September! Having said that, after everything that has happened over the previous eighteen months, it was great to have the chance to sail, play cricket, and have some normality back. I am well aware of how privileged I am to have had the chance to have some relative freedom having been vaccinated against COVID, and hope initiatives like COVAX will ensure everyone will have the same opportunities to get some of their life back soon.

It is just seven days now until our Virtual World Congress. Once again I think we have a great program including cutting edge research, workshops, master classes, smaller HUB discussions and more. The program has something for everyone and certainly is the best meeting of the year for anyone with a passion for the use of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology. 

I am really pleased that this year the registration fee for the meeting has been reduced to £35 for members and £50 for non members from low resource countries. Hopefully, this will make the meeting more accessible. I also want to thank all our speakers. Like most meetings these days, nearly all the lectures are recorded and the speaker is then available live for discussion. I am well aware that recording lectures adds a significant amount of work to the process, and your efforts are very much appreciated!

On the education front Lil Valentin and Antonia Testa are running their popular course on “less common conditions encountered in gynecology” on 13th November, and there is also a BT Flex Basic Training course in November as well. A new departure on the 28th November is the first “Latin America” course covering basic concepts in obstetrics and gynecology ultrasound and will be in Spanish and Portuguese. This is the start of ISUOG’s strategy to tailor more courses to regional needs including running them in local languages. Next year will see a  full  two day International Symposium in Latin America in May and a similar meeting in the Asia-Pacific region towards the end of the year. In Africa, on 14th December, we have the virtual convention on gynecological surgery and ultrasound ”improving patient outcomes in Africa”. This is the result of collaboration between the Next Generation group at ISUOG and colleagues in Senegal. We will soon be providing details of the educations courses and webinars running through next year on the website.

Over at the journal, amongst others, the October issue includes a mini-series of papers on first-trimester screening for pre-eclampsia, a study confirming the benefit of valacyclovir administration from the first trimester for secondary prevention of congenital CMV infection, a study demonstrating the anatomical features that prevent reliable assessment of endometrial thickness on transvaginal ultrasound, and a study showing that long-term neurological outcomes after percutaneous fetoscopic open spina bifida repair are similar to those after hysterotomy-assisted repair.

So, that’s it from me – having not written a newsletter for a while I might have to have a lie down if I write any more. I hope many of you will be joining us for the world congress next week, in which case I will be speaking to you then.

Best wishes,

Tom 

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