Something for Everyone at the Leading Edge
Last week the Jefferson Ultrasound Research and Education Institute (my employer) held it's annual Leading Edge in Diagnostic Ultrasound conference in Atlantic City, NJ. This was the 28th annual meeting and I felt very much like a "seasoned alumni" (read: old) since I've been to this meeting for the last 25 years. The meeting director, Dr. Barry B. Goldberg, and his co-directors deserve a lot of credit for once again putting together a meeting that offered educational opportunities for virtually anyone in the field of sonography--from students preparing to take their certification examinations to researchers and, of course, clinicians from many disciplines.
I am sure you will be seeing an article soon either in print and/or on-line from Stacy Stanislaw, Assistant Editor at ADVANCE for Imaging and Radiation Therapy Professionals, but I wanted to share with you my personal take on this year's LE meeting.
The one-day Physics Refresher (part of a 3-day "The Requisites" track) was well attended and, for a change, there were not only younger students in the crowd but also more mature attendees. I suspected they were new users of sonography from the "emerging markets" of rheumatology, anesthesiology or sports medicine who wanted to obtain a foundation of physical principles of the modality. The Physics Refresher was taught by Dr. Fred Kremkau, one of the most well-known PhDs in the field. I had lunch with Dr. Kremkau and he mentioned that he is looking forward to publishing the eighth edition of his highly regarded book Diagnostic Ultrasound: Principles and Instruments.
The "Women's Imaging Symposium" offered a one-day session on breast sonography as well as lectures covering both obstetrics and gynecology. There was also a half-day "Fetal Nuchal Translucency Credentialing Course."
The 3-day track entitled "Vascular Ultrasound Head to Toe" had (as the name suggests) presentations that included cerebrovascular, peripheral and visceral applications of Doppler ultrasound. The vascular themed lectures are always popular since this is a dynamic area of sonography because the applications continue to expand and improve with advances in technology.
Musculoskeletal sonography continues to gain attention both within as well as outside of radiology. At this year's conference there was a 2-day seminar that covered upper and lower extremity applications. (Who said you can't evaluate the knee with sonography?!) The meeting room was standing-room only, which suggests to me that there will be more practices offering MSK US services in the future.
For the researchers in attendance, there was the 14th annual "Contrast Agents Symposium" (which, unfortunately did not attract a huge crowd most likely because of the recent problems that contrast agents have had in this country) and an "Elastography Tutorial" that was surprisingly popular. Elastography is gaining a lot of attention these days, and I believe it represents a new frontier for engineers, scientists and clinician researchers to collaborate towards improving ultrasound diagnoses.
Next year the Leading Edge will be held May 19th - 22nd in Atlantic City, NJ. You can get more information from the JUREI website; www.jefferson.edu/jurei/
I hope to see you there.