The Third Leading Edge Conference in Diagnostic Ultrasound once again took place in the heart of the wild West Coast at Middle Beach Lodge in Tofino, BC, Canada. The conference started on Saturday with a wild storm which attracted many surfers to our beach to surf the big ones. We were greeted with a spectacular sunny day for the second day of our conference. Participants came from White Horse, Kelowna, Vernon, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver, Victoria, Campbell River, and Port Alberni. We were fortunate again to have the support of world class speakers who are recognized in their specialized field for their dedication to the advancement of diagnostic ultrasound in medicine. We continue to receive excellent feedback from our enthusiastic attendees who confirmed we were on the right track with our mission to assist sonographers to "STAY CURRENT" with rapidly changing ultrasound technology.
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Thank-you to everyone for making the Third Leading Edge Conference in Diagnostic Ultrasound in Canada another successful Conference! Loads of learning in a magical location and fun for all.
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Overall comments made by participants on the evaluation forms:
- Really excellent program, really excellent setting, well organized and run!
- Excellent program.
- Well done Ruth and Hamid. Thanks again for all your hard work.
- Very good format/size/setting. Small group condusive to learning.
- Great speakers for such an intimate conference.
- Great conference! Wonderful setting!
- Excellent speakers, subjects, organization. Excellent location, rain or shine regardless of effort to get here
- Would be great if lectures started early as in 7:30 in the morning and finished by 12:30
- Excellent job with conference. With such a great location maybe consider talks early and break for part of the day and then reconveine for later or do only a morning session
- Well run and I always enjoy coming to this conference
- Great conference! Thanks so much for all of info. MSK was great, the live scanning was very informative
- This was a great conference, a fantastic experience, thank you!
Some of the comments received by email:
- Dustin: Thanks for putting on this conference. It was the best one that I've been to... period. I think that the small size is the key to it's success as it fosters participation and further learning. It's easy to fall asleep in a crowd of hundreds. Looking forward to #4.
- Lynda: My compliments on such an enjoyable well organized conference with such excellent speakers. Well done!
- Dean: Thank you very much for hosting such a great event. The small group setting keeps everyone engaged and then becomes an excellent learning environment.
- Marg: Thanks so much. I really enjoyed the conference and the stay at MBL. See you next year!
Click on blue links to see full evaluation results:
Obstetrical Ultrasound Pot Pourri by Dr. Duncan Farquharson
Associate Professor, University of British Columbia
Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Wonderful images related talks to sonographers
- Always great to hear what's new at women's
- Great mix of cases
- Excellent presentation
- OB topics are great
- Looking for placenta accreta with C-section and vasoprevia
- Placenta accreta assessment
- Ductus venosus and nasal bones
- Color Doppler appropriate for certain diagnosis
- Give as much information as possible for clinicians
- Interesting cases help keep us thinking so always good to see cases we may come across
- Can always learn more, ultrasound is amazing!
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- How to properly assess cord Doppler
- Importance of Doppler compared with abnormal blood screening test
- Uterine artery Doppler past 24 weeks very indicative/predictive of future problems
- Uterine artery might be something we should be looking at
- Better understanding of IUGR screening
- Proper location for doing uterine artery Doppler
- Doppler assessment increases in importance in high risk patients (not all patients)
- A lot covered in small amount of time. Impressive!
- Excellent speaker
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Interactive Live MSK Ultrasound (Rotator Cuff) by Dr. Mark Cresswell
Director of MSK Fellowship Program, University of British Columbia
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Good props!! Especially for sonographers not presently doing shoulder ultrasound. Very dynamic speaker!
- Humourous of the humerus!
- Good speaker, I always enjoy his lectures
- Excellent review of shoulder ultrasound and more understanding of mechanics, really enjoyed the home-made models
- Importance of dynamics
- Biceps tendon subluxing on evaluating subscapularis tear
- Shoulder ultrasound is easier that what I thought
- Have a look at the entire shoulder and try dynamic scanning of the shoulder
- Stay current
- Know your muscle attachments, locations, and how to stress the muscles
- Good review of shoulder ultrasound exam and approach
- I would like to try doing shoulder ultrasound on the patient
- The 123 idea made it easy! The props made so much sense.
- Use landmarks to make sure that you are addressing the correct tendon
- I need to spend more time with anatomy of the shoulder
- Excellent and very practical talk
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Great motivative speaker
- Excellent presentation
- Fantastic presentation, thank you!
- How to image ulnar and median nerves and flexor and extensor tendons.
- Great info on ext/flex and distal biceps tendons and AC joint. Easy to understand, interactive.
- Distal biceps tendon assessment.
- Good info on distal biceps
- How to assess elbow
- Look beyond the rotator cuff
- Simple if you know your basics, go to experts for training and diagnosis
- Good coverage of structures beyond the cuff
- Hope to start doing ultrasound of the shoulder
- How simple it can be
- MSK can be done
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Clinical Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Very interesting, great images. Well done!
- Interesting topic
- Good speaker
- Interesting application for difficult to asses masses and treatment options
- Importance and helpfulness of contrast in ultrasound
- Contrast ultrasound "can be" useful
- Alternative to traditional diagnostic methods
- There is always new methods
- Contrast enhances ultrasound
- Contrast would definitely add value in ultrasound
- very interesting regarding wash-out or no wash-out
- Contrast ultrasound is just beginning and will be used increasingly over the next few years
- Interesting topic, not useful for general practice
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Quality Control in Diagnostic Ultrasound by Ruth E. Andermatt, Janice Reid and Hamid Tahmasebpour |
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Great lecture.
- All levels of quality discussed, great trio presentation. You have the control of your quality
- Excellent presentation
- Ruth is an excellent motivational speaker
- Quality is multi-factoral.
- Color Doppler images can be affected by damaged probes and you could miss pathology.
- Do your best to be in tune with patient.
- Very concerning re quality control
- Importance of QC on probes
- QA/QC is very important
- Continue to live in the now
- Time to get some QA/QC standards in BC
- Cultivating quality, probe testing is important
- The importance of probe testing
- QA/QC has many components, it is not just about the equipment
- Quality is variable and deserves attention
- Be critical of our images
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Elastography in Breast Ultrasound Examinations by Hamid Tahmasebpour
Clinical Instructor, University of British Columbia
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Excellent presentation
- There is definitely a place for elastography in breast lesion diagnosis
- Elastography is a great tool and we should be promoting it
- Elastography increases diagnostic confidence
- Easy method to differentiate breast lesions
- I do not perform breast imaging, but intersting to hear about new things
- An interesting new technology
- Something to keep an eye on
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Post Metal on Metal Hip Arthroplasty Ultrasound, A New Application by Hamid Tahmasebpour
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Very well done
- Pseudotumours exist
- Importance of ultrasound for the future. Young patients with hip replacement
- Metal on metal hip arthroplasty is an up and coming issue best diagnosed with ultrasound
- Something we should be doing
- Expected side effect of metal on metal hip replacements
- Pseudotumours post metal on metal hip arthroplasty
- Reminder to stay current
- Ultrasound at forefront for assessing metal on metal hip arthroplasty
- Entire topic and future relevence
- The important value of ultrasound compared to CT/MRI/x-ray
- This is a technique we should learn. This may be an upcoming standard process for post hip replacment monitoring
- Importance of ultrasound on post metal on metal hip replacement
- Topic of the future, upcoming area of investigation
- Great topic!
- Concise and interesting
- Well done! Keep it up.
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Summary of the comments made by participants on this topic:
- Great for consistent and reproducible follow up between sonographers and sonologists
- Good speaker
- We should be using this system throughout BC.
- Consistent sonographer's report means better reports and easier for radiologists to report
- We need to work on standardizing at home
- Importance of consistency in reporting
- Computerization can be good
- Standardization of sonographers worksheet Where we need to be going in the future
- Having structured worksheets would be beneficial
- Clear way to report what we see
- Good idea, worth looking into
- Good idea to standardize practice
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