Basic Training Lecture Contributions

Prof. Reem S. Abu-Rustum obtained her medical degree and completed her residency training at the University of Florida (USA). She is a fellow of the American College of OB/GYN (ACOG), the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and the American College of Surgeons. She is certified by the Fetal Medicine Foundation in first and second trimester ultrasound.

She was ISUOG's Ambassador to Outreach in Lebanon and the Middle East, Chair of ISUOG's Basic Training Task Force, a member ISUOG's Outreach Committee and a member of ISUOG's 3D Special Interest Group. She serves as Co-Chair of the AIUM Annual Convention Committee, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine, is a member of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine's Education and Global Health Committees, and is a member of the Fetal Heart Society's Education Committee. She is Editor-in-Chief of the quarterly newsletter of the Centre for Advanced Fetal Care. She served as a member of the Editorial Review Board for the AIUM OBGYN Ultrasound Lecture Series and currently serves on the SMFM-AIUM Task force on Curriculum Development and Competency Assessment Tools for MFM Fellowship Training.

She has authored the text "A Practical Guide to 3D Ultrasound" (CRC Press 2014). Her primary areas of interest are the first trimester fetus and the fetal heart. She is also actively involved in the integration of ultrasound in medical education and is the co-founder and President of SANA Medical NGO, which is dedicated to obstetrical care within an outreach setting.

She is a Professor of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Florida.

Notable publications:

Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF. The 3 sweep approach for fetal anatomic assessment in the outreach setting. Journal of Fetal Medicine 2017; 4(1): 25-30.

Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF, Abu-Rustum SE, Danawi H. The Role of Ultrasound in the Lebanese Outreach Setting. International Journal of Childbirth Education. 2015; 30(2): 43-48.

Abu-Rustum RS. A Practical Guide to 3D Ultrasound. First Edition. CRC Press. 9 Dec 2014.

Abu-Rustum RS, Ziade MF, Abu-Rustum SE. Reference values for the right and left fetal choroid plexus at 11-13 weeks: an early sign of ‘developmental’ laterality? J. Ultrasound Med 2013; 32: 1623-1629.

Country: Lebanon

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester; aneuploidy screening; fetal heart; 3D & 4D ultrasound; basic training; the first trimester fetus; ultrasound in medical education.  

Languages: English; Arabic

"My ISUOG membership over the past decade has empowered me to establish SANA Medical NGO in North Lebanon, modelled on ISUOG Outreach. This has been a most gratifying experience: spreading ISUOG's teachings and providing training to midwives and nurses in our neediest underserved areas. Our trainees are now enabled to provide comprehensive antenatal care, positively impacting the lives of under-resourced Lebanese mothers as well as Syrian refugees."

Maya Al-Memar is a Consultant Gynaecologist at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, with specialist clinical interests in complex benign gynaecology, acute diagnostic services including early pregnancy and acute gynaecology, rapid access for suspected gynaecological cancer, and paediatric & adolescent gynaecology. She completed her training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in North-West London including specialty training at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital, and St Mary’s Hospital. Having worked in the largest gynaecology & reproductive medicine service in London at Imperial, she has experience in managing complex patients. Her focus is to provide the best possible care for women using high quality diagnostics ultrasound skills to streamline care. She graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine with first class honours in 2007, where she also completed her PhD and is now an honorary clinical lecturer. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals. She currently has on-going research projects in the fields of early pregnancy, miscarriage, ovarian cysts and use of ultrasound to improve diagnosis of ovarian masses.

Country: UK

Field: Obstetrics & Gynaecology

Specialties: Early pregnancy and gynaecology imaging, adnexal masses, paediatric and adolescent gynaecology

Languages: English, Arabic

Prof. dr. C.M. (Katia) Bilardo is Professor of Fetal Medicine at UMCG in the Netherlands and is an expert on ultrasound and invasive prenatal diagnosis. 

Caterina (Katia) M. Bilardo was born in Savigliano (Piedmont), Italy. After completing
cum laude in 1983 the Medical studies and the Specialization in Obstetrics and
Gynaecology at the University of Turin, she trained as Fellow in Prenatal Diagnosis and
Fetal Medicine (1985- 1989) at King’s College Hospital, London, where she worked
under the supervision of Prof. S. Campbell and Prof. K. N. Nicolaides.

Since 1989 she has relocated to the Netherlands where she has worked as Consultant
and Head of the Prenatal Diagnosis Department at the Academic Medical Center
Amsterdam (1992-2010). From 2010 to 2017 she has worked as Head of the Fetal
Medicine Department at the University Medical Center Groningen where, in 2011, she
has been appointed Professor in Fetal Medicine. Since October 2017 she has moved
with the same position to the Amsterdam UMC, location VU Medical Center in
Amsterdam, where she has also been appointed as Professor in Obstetrics, Gynecology
and Fetal Medicine. In the Netherlands she has been President of the Dutch Working
Party for Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology and is currently member of the
Committee Prenatal Screening of the National Health Council.

Since 2007 she is in the Editorial Board of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Since 2009 she is Board member of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics
and Gynecology (ISUOG). Between 2013-2017 she was Chair of the Education
Committee within ISUOG. And in 2018-2020 she has been President of the same
Society.

She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and supervised numerous PhD students.
In 2021 she was bestowed the Stuart Campbell award for Education.

Research Areas
• Doppler study of the utero-placental and fetal circulation (chief researcher
Truffle study)
• Fetal dysmorphology ( 2D and 3D studies)
• First and second trimester ultrasound screening for aneuploidies
• First trimester ultrasound
• Psychological aspects of Screening
• Fetal cardiology

Field: Obstetrics

Country: The Netherlands

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 & T2; fetal biometry and wellbeing; aneuploidies; fetal anomalies; fetal heart; fetal brain; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; fetal interventional procedures; 3D & 4D ultrasound; genetics

Languages: English; Italian; French; Dutch

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.

Co-Founder of CéBB (Centre d’échographie Boulogne-Billancourt) and Centre SFFERe (Spécialiste Fœtus, Femme Enceinte et Reproduction). Part timer in the Fetal surgery center, Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, Paris, France.

Dr Gihad E. Chalouhi  MD, PhD is an Obstetrics and Gynecology specialist. He worked for 8 years with Prof. Yves Ville Y and Prof. Laurent Salomon in Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, Paris and is subspecialized in in prenatal diagnosis, fetal medicine, fetoscopy and fetal surgery with more than 300 performed fetoscopies. He is specialized in fetal imaging and obtained his PhD in fetal functional MRI in Paris Descartes University and INSERM unit U970. He is a member of the CNGOF (French National College of obstetrics and Gynecology), the LSOG (Lebanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and the CFEF (French College of Fetal Ultrasound).

He is a pioneer in the implementation of simulation in obstetrical and gynecological ultrasound education, and remains actively involved in this integration. He is an active member of ISUOG's Basic Training Task Force, and leader of the Simulation Work Group. For the last five years he has worked as part of ISUOG's Clinical Standards Committee for the establishment of ISUOG’s Guidelines.

He is the co-founder and President of SimECHOle, the school for ultrasound training and education using simulators in Paris, France.

Notable Publications: Dr Chalouhi has co-authored more than 70 scientific publications in internationally renowned journals and more then 10 chapters.

Use of simulators for the assessment of trainees' competence: trendy toys or valuable instruments?
Tolsgaard MG, Chalouhi GE. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2018  Apr 17. doi: 10.1002/uog.19071. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29667240.

"Fake it until they make it": Practical obstetrical and gynecological ultrasound education nowadays in France.
Chalouhi GE, Gueneuc A, Levaillant JM, Ville Y. Gynecol Obstet Fertil Senol. 2017 Nov;45(11):579-581. doi: 10.1016/j.gofs.2017.09.008. Epub 2017 Nov 3. French. PubMed PMID: 29108903.

Evaluation of trainees' ability to perform obstetrical ultrasound using simulation: challenges and opportunities.
Chalouhi GE, Bernardi V, Gueneuc A, Houssin I, Stirnemann JJ, Ville Y. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2016 Apr;214(4):525.e1-525.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.ajog.2015.10.932. Epub 2015 Nov 10. PubMed PMID: 26546849.

Ultrasound simulators in obstetrics and gynecology: state of the art.
Chalouhi GE, Bernardi V, Ville Y. Ultrasound Obstet Gynecol. 2015 Sep;46(3):255-63. doi: 10.1002/uog.14707. PubMed PMID: 25346451.

Country: Lebanon and France

Field: Obstetrics/Gynecology/Fetal medicine and surgery

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester; fetal biometry and wellbeing; fetal anomalies screening; aneuploidy screening; fetal anomalies; fetal heart; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; fetal interventional procedure; multiple pregnancy; early pregnancy; fetal growth; education in Ob-Gyn ultrasound; fetal MRI and functional MRI; fetal surgery.

Languages: French; English; Arabic

Trish Chudleigh is a sonographer who has been involved in the teaching and practice of obstetric ultrasound since the mid 1970s, starting her scanning career with Stuart Campbell at King’s College Hospital, London. She has been actively involved with the Fetal Anomaly Screening Programme for many years, in the establishment of the UK national guidelines, initially, for Down’s screening, subsequently, for fetal anomaly screening and, more recently, in the ongoing rolling out of the national cardiac training programme. She is the co-author of one of the standard obstetric ultrasound textbooks in the UK, the 4th edition of which is currently in press. She is the lead sonographer at the Rosie Hospital, Cambridge. 

Country: UK

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal biometry & wellbeing; fetal anomaly screening; T1 & T2; aneuploides; fetal anomalies; fetal brain; fetal heart; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; early pregnancy; multiple pregnancy.

Language: English

Titia Cohen-Overbeek has worked as a physician in Fetal Medicine at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Erasmus University Medical Centre since 1987. Prior to that she obtained her training in prenatal diagnosis during a 5-year period at Kings College Hospital in London under the guidance of professor Stuart Campbell. During that period, she was the first to visualize the blood flow in the uterine artery by Doppler ultrasound.

The early collaboration with many pediatric specialists resulted in numerous scientific papers on prenatal diagnosis of congenital anomalies, their postnatal outcome and the long term follow up of these children. Her thesis “Detection of congenital anomalies before or after birth; does it make a difference?” was published in 2008. Following the introduction in the Netherlands in 2007 of the fetal anomaly scan as part of the national prenatal screening program she established an widely attended ultrasound training program for obstetricians. Since 2015 she became member of the national quality committee geared towards assessing the quality of the various prenatal screening tests available within the national prenatal screening program

She has been member of the ISUOG outreach committee from 2012-2018, participated in the outreach project in Somaliland in 2012 and has been the leader of the outreach project in Oman from 2017 onwards. She was a member of the ISUOG Basic Training Taskforce since 2016 and was particularly involved with the formation of the Basic Training theoretical curriculum. In a collaboration of Medical Aid Films with ISUOG she was part of the team that made the two Basic Training instruction films “The principles of ultrasound” and “The Basic Steps of an Obstetric Ultrasound Examination” which are free available on the ISUOG website.

Country: The Netherlands

Field: Obstetrics, MFM

Languages: English, Dutch

Specialties: Congenital anomalies, Doppler, teaching methods, audit methods.

Dr Basma Darwish graduated with an MD degree in 2005 from the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain, she pursued a five year residency program in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rouen University in France.

Her experience is in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as ultrasound, with both national and international participations. She is currently the head of Saudi's National Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Training Program, where she is in charge of supervising residents, mentoring them and participating in the development of the scientific and clinical program. She is also responsible for the Fetal Assessment Unit. 

Country: Bahrain

Languages: English; Arabic, French

Wouter Froyman graduated as a Medical Doctor at KU Leuven in 2011. He finished his specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2018 and has since then worked as a consultant in this department at the University Hospitals Leuven.

His main clinical activities and research are related to gynecological ultrasound and treatment of benign gynecological pathology, with special interest in minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery.

In 2019, he obtained his PhD degree in Biomedical Sciences, with a doctoral thesis entitled "Progress in differentiation and clinical management of adnexal masses".  In 2020, he was appointed associate professor at KU Leuven. He is also a steering committee member of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) studies.

Dr Monique Haak is a fetal specialist at the Department of Obstetrics at Leiden University Medical Center, focusing on diagnostic imaging in pregnancies with fetal malformations. Her special interest is in fetal cardiac defects, fetal therapy and multiple pregnancies. She is the leader of research projects on developments in fetal echocardiography, fetal therapy and screening in pregnancy. Monique has published over 100 peer reviewed papers and has taught various ultrasonography courses. She was project leader in the founding of the National Ultrasonography Course for residents in training, which is ow an e-learning course (www.echocursus.net), and organised the first fetal echocardiography course in the Netherlands, which has now been running for 11 years.

Prof. Jon Hyett trained in obstetrics and gynecology and sub-specialised in maternal and fetal medicine in the UK. He is currently Joint Head of the Discipline of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Neonataology at the University of Sydney. He is involved nationally with the Nuchal Translucency Accreditation Program of RANZCR / RANZCOG and internationally with the obstetric ultrasound accreditation programs run by the Fetal Medicine Foundation, UK and ISUOG. Jon is also involved in the Scientific Committee, which oversees the production and development of the scientific program for the ISUOG World Congress.

Country: Australia

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 & T2; fetal biometry and wellbeing; aneuploidies; fetal anomalies; fetal heart; fetal brain; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; fetal interventional procedures; multiple pregnancy; preeclampsia; preterm delivery; genetics

Language: English

Country: USA

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 &T2; fetal biometry and wellbeing; aneuploidies; fetal interventional procedures; multiple pregnancy

Language: English

Prof. Gianluigi Pilu is Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Università di Bologna, Italy. He is a researcher in the fields of Obstetrics and Prenatal Diagnosis.

Notable Publications: Authors of more 200 original scientific articles published in journal with perl review listed in Index Medicus, 5 books and several multimedia products.

2007 Gold Medal Award article

Prof. Laurent Salomon is a senior consultant in the Department of Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine at Necker-Enfants-Malades Hospital and full professor at Paris Descartes University. His special interests are imaging technologies including MRI, Twins, Fetal surgery, Statistics, Teaching processes and Quality control. Laurent completed a PhD in Physics with distinction (Paris XI Sud, Science University – Orsay), applied to Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the placenta.  He also completed a MSc in Medical Statistic with distinction at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

Laurent is an associate director of a Master Degree in Prenatal Diagnosis and Fetal Medicine at Paris Descartes University. He is on the Editorial Board of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology and involved in many committees and task forces of ISUOG. Laurent also serves on a regular basis as an expert for the National Agency for Biomedicine, French Health Authority and National Security Agency in Health Products, as well as for international research projects. 

Country: France

Field: Obstetrics; Imaging; Fetal Medicine

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 & T2; fetal biometry and wellbeing; aneuploidies; fetal anomalies; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; fetal interventional procedures; multiple pregnancy

Languages: English; French

Dr S.Suresh is the Managing Director of Mediscan Systems a tertiary referral centre for Fetal Medicine in India. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of O&G London (honoriscausa) and is actively involved in training over 4000 physicians from India and other countries in Ultrasound and Fetal Medicine for over 35 years. He has several publications to his credit and is involved in various Research projects in Fetal Medicine. He has set up the Birth Defects Registry of India which is recognized as a subnational registry by the WHO. He is the managing Trustee of Fetal Care Research Foundation a Charity organisation that aims to provide access to treatment options for the underprivileged. He is a recipient of several awards and was one of the earliest to set up a Fetoscopic surgical service in India.

He is a visiting Prof in Perinatology at the Sri Ramachandra Medical University and the Chief functionary of the Voluntary Health Services, a charitable hospital in Chennai which aims to achieve affordable quality health care for all .

Notable publications:

Radio frequency ablation in Complicated Monochorionic Pregnancy : Initial Experience DOI: 10; 1007/s/40556-017-0145 Journal of Fetal Medicine, 2017 Nov PP 1-6. Pm;ome [in;ocatopm 30th Nov 2017]

Suresh Seshadri; Down Syndrome Screening in India, Are we there yet? Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology India; 2017 Dec 17. 67(6) ; 393-399, Epub 2017 August 17 DOI : 10. 1007/S12098-017-2528-5

Country: India

Field: Fetal medicine

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening 1st trimester and 2nd trimester; fetal biometry and wellbeing; fetal anomalies screening; aneuploidy screening; fetal anomalies; fetal heart; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; multiple pregnancy; 3D & 4D ultrasound; fetal intervention procedure; early pregnancy; fetal growth. 

Languages: English

Prof. Ann Tabor is Professor of Fetal Medicine at the Department of Obstetrics, The Juliane Marie Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital and the University of Copenhagen. Her main research areas are:

• Prenatal screening
• First trimester risk assessment of the fetus
• Invasive diagnostic procedures in pregnancy
• Intrauterine growth
• Intrauterine monitoring of foetuses at risk
• Teaching and training in obstetrical and gynaecological ultrasound
• Physical and sexual abuse in women

Professor Ann Tabor received an Award from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, in recognition of achievement in gynaecology and obstetrics, in 2000. In 2008 she was awarded the Gold Medal from the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Singapore, and in 2011 she was rewarded with a grant from The Found called ‘A Good Beginning In Life” for her research on violence and abuse in women.

Country: Denmark

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 &T2; aneuploidies; preterm delivery

Languages: English; Danish; French

Prof. Dirk Timmerman  is a Professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at KU Leuven, Belgium, and Clinical Head of benign gynecology and early pregnancy UZ Leuven. He is also Vice-chair of the Medical Council at the University Hospitals Leuven and Senior Clinical Investigator of the Scientific Research Fund (FWO) Flanders. He is coordinator of the International Ovarian Tumor Analysis (IOTA) collaborative group, including more than 50 centres for ovarian cancer diagnosis throughout the world. The IOTA group aims to develop new algorithms and liquid biopsies to diagnose and detect ovarian cancer and provide optimal care of adnexal tumors (included patients n>22,500). He has been awarded the Inbev Baillet-Latour Prize for Clinical Research 2014, Fellowship ad eundem from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG, London, 2014) and the William J. Fry Memorial Lecture Award from the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine  2016 at AIUM Annual Convention, New York.

Country: Belgium

Field: Gynecology

Specialties: Gynecological ultrasound; gynecological oncology; early pregnancy

Languages: English; Dutch; French

Prof. Nikos Vrachnis is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Athens Medical School, Attiko University Hospital in Athens, and Chair of the ISUOG Validation Task Force. Currently, he serves as President of the Hellenic Authority for Medically Assisted Reproduction. He is also a Visiting Reader in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine at St George’s University Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London.
 

Nikos has written or edited 15 books, has more than 150 scientific publications and has been awarded four times for his research work.  He has a special interest in medical education, simulation and training, preterm labour, Down’s syndrome, fetal anomalies and 3D/4D ultrasound. Has run more than 100 practical courses in Greece and Cyprus, including Obstetric and Gynecologic Ultrasound courses, as well as courses in Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Presently serves as President of the Hellenic Society of Obstetric and Gynecologic Emergency.

Within the ISUOG he is a member of the Educational Committee, of the Basic Training Task Force and of the Patient Leaflets task force.

Notable publications
Soluble Fas and Fas-ligand levels in mid-trimester amniotic fluid and their associations with severe small for gestational age fetuses: a prospective observational study.
Vrachnis N, Dalainas I, Papoutsis D, Samoli E, Rizos D, Iliodromiti Z, Siristatidis C, Tsikouras P, Creatsas G, Botsis D. J Reprod Immunol. 2013 Jun;98(1-2):39-44

The fetus that is small for gestational age.
Vrachnis N, Botsis D, Iliodromiti Z. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Dec;1092:304-9

Elevated mid-trimester amniotic fluid ADAM-8 concentrations as a potential risk factor for preterm delivery.
Vrachnis N, Malamitsi-Puchner A, Samoli E, Botsis D, Iliodromiti Z, Baka S, Hassiakos D, Creatsas G. J Soc Gynecol Investig. 2006 Apr;13(3):186-90.

Resistin in mid-trimester amniotic fluid in trisomy 21.
Vrachnis N, Gkogkas L, Iliodromiti S, Grigoriadis C, Samoli E, Iliodromiti Z, Pangalos C, Pappa KI, Drakoulis N, Creatsas G, Botsis D. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2013 Nov;26(16):1576-80

Three-dimensional ultrasound and three-dimensional power Doppler improve the preoperative evaluation of complex benign ovarian lesions.
Vrachnis N, Sifakis S, Samoli E, Kappou D, Pavlakis K, Iliodromiti Z, Botsis D. Clin Exp Obstet Gynecol. 2012;39(4):474-8.

Hospital visiting in obstetrics and gynecology: a tool for the advancement of training.
Creatsas G, Vrachnis N. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2006 Dec;95(3):298-301

Placental growth factor (PlGF): a key to optimizing fetal growth.
Vrachnis N, Kalampokas E, Sifakis S, Vitoratos N, Kalampokas T, Botsis D, Iliodromiti Z. J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2013 Jul;26(10):995-1002.

Doppler assessment of the intrauterine growth-restricted fetus.
Botsis D, Vrachnis N, Christodoulakos G. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Dec;1092:297-303

Country: Greece

Field: Obstetrics, Gynecology, Fetal-Maternal Medicine

Specialties: Preterm labour, Down’s syndrome, fetal anomalies, and 3D/4D ultrasound

Languages: Greek, English

Notable Publications:

Schoonderwaldt EM, Groenenberg IA, Hop WC, Wladimiroff JW, Steegers EA. Reproducibility of echocardiographic measurements of human fetal left ventricular volumes and ejection fractions using four-dimensional ultrasound with the spatio-temporal image correlation modality. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2012; 160: 22-9.

The outcome of gastroschisis after prenatal diagnosis or a diagnosis only after birth. Recommendations for prenatal surveillance. Cohen-Overbeek TE, Hatzmann TR, Steegers EA, Hop WC, Wladimiroff JW, Tibboel D. Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 2008; 139: 21-7

1996 Gold Medal Award article

Country: UK

Field: Obstetrics

Specialties: Fetal anomaly screening T1 & T2; fetal biometry and wellbeing; aneuploidies; fetal anomalies; fetal heart; fetal brain; fetal growth restriction; maternal and fetal Doppler; multiple pregnancy

Languages: English; Russian; Dutch