By Dr Anushya Vijayananthan

The CBIE (Continuing Biomedical Imaging Education) Center of the University Malaya Medical Center (UMMC), plans courses throughout the year, which deals with all forms of imaging. There are courses for general practitioners on ultrasound and also courses for radiographers and radiologists on a wide variety of topics. At the end of 2007, the CBIE calendar for the following year was planned and it was felt that an update on vascular ultrasound would be a good idea. Dr Amir Fuad and I were given the task to be coordinators of this course and as usual we only had one person in mind to be our main speaker, none other than Dr Nitin Chaubal from Mumbai.

For those of you who do not know Dr Nitin, let me tell you that he can produce real “magic” when he has the ultrasound probe in his hand. I had the privilege of being at his center for vascular training for a month in the year 2003 and have seen for myself the dedication and true genius of his ultrasound capabilities. Dr Nitin helped Amir and myself with the programme and he roped in two of his good friends who are also authorities in the ultrasound field. They were Dr Ramamurthy from Bangalore (vascular ultrasound) and Dr Boopathy from Coimbatore (abdominal and genito-urinary ultrasound). After much haggling and brow beating, we set the venue for The Saujana Hotel in Subang and we were all set to go!!

Amir and I decided that we would rope in the Malaysian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine (MSUM) and the College of Radiology (COR) as joint organisers of this course. Soon the ball was set in motion and as usual, the response from the radiology fraternity was overwhelming. The various ultrasound companies were all very supportive and so, we finally arrived at the “moment of truth”. As with many things in life, “Where’s the fun, if everything runs smoothly, right?”

On the eve of the course, the Mumbai bombings took place! We spent the entire night on the phone with Dr Nitin during his journey from his home to the airport until he had boarded the plane. The situation in Mumbai was on “high alert” and we specifically told him not to endanger his life in any way. We knew that we would have to resort to a contingency plan just in case Dr Nitin was unable to make it. However, everything turned out for the best, and he managed to get on the flight to Kuala Lumpur.

The participating ultrasound companies came out in full force and took a lot of trouble to furnish their booths with the latest ultrasound equipment. The participating ultrasound companies were Philips, Siemens, Toshiba, Aloka and GE. On both days, we had a series of lectures which dealt with vascular, gastrointestinal and genitourinary ultrasound. We also had demo sessions on both days using the machines from the various ultrasound companies. At the end of the first day, Dr Boopathy showed us some interesting cases that he had experienced at his center in Coimbatore. The demo sessions were also very helpful in showing us the different methods of acquiring vascular images and images of the bowel. We concluded the final day at about 5 pm after tokens of appreciation were handed out to our esteemed speakers.

All in all, the input from the participants was very encouraging and I believe it was a weekend well spent. At the end of the day, what we want is to be able to take home with us valuable information that will help us in our daily work and that is exactly what this course set out to do, and I believe that goal was achieved. Amir and I would personally like to thank all the participants for their enthusiasm in making this course a success. We would also like to thank the ultrasound companies for their support. A special mention is to be made to Philips, for flying our speakers down, to GE, for sponsoring their hotel stay and to Siemens, for providing the conference bags. Your help was much appreciated. We look forward to seeing all of you at our next ultrasound event.