The Birth of ISUOG and UOG : a personal recollection

Le résumé fourni par la source

The world was very different in 1990 compared to today; there was no web, internet, Twitter, social media or mobile phones. Computers were primitive, and Tippex was still required when typing documents. Selfies did not exist and self-promotion was minimal, so this history of the early days of our Society is accompanied by precious little documentation and few photographs. It is a reconstruction of events, based principally on memory – mainly mine (hence, the first-person narrative) – but also supported by recollections of friends and colleagues, especially Sturla Eik-Nes, who has provided me with some important documentation, and Kazuo Maeda, who has sent me the only photographs that I have from that time. In 1989, I was asked by several of my international colleagues in the field of ultrasound (henceforth referred to as ‘the group’), including Professors Manfred Hansmann (Germany), Asim Kurjak (Yugoslavia), George Kossoff (Australia), Juriy Wladimiroff (The Netherlands), Kazuo Maeda (Japan), Ivan Zador (USA) and Larry Platt (USA), to arrange a world congress of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology and to establish a journal, thus laying the foundations for an international society of ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology. There was little argument about the need for an international society in our specialty, as the current major ultrasound societies, such as EFSUMB (European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology) and WFUMB (World Federation of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology), set aside in their congresses a meagre amount of time for obstetrics and gynecology, despite this being the fastest-growing area of clinical ultrasound at that time. Many researchers did not send their latest work to these meetings, as very few obstetricians and gynecologists attended. There were small meetings held in Europe for enthusiasts, but none had a democratic structure or a truly international dimension. Our group were in a hurry. Not only was I to host the first world congress, in London, in a year's time, but I was to set up a new international journal, covering obstetric and gynecological ultrasound, to be published in time for the congress delegates to find in their bag. The group also suggested that I become first president of the Society, perhaps as a reward for my efforts! I must admit, I suddenly felt a cloud of responsibility hanging over my head, especially as there were no funds to support the project and, furthermore, I had an academic department to run. The only consolation was that I knew I had a brilliant research team at King's to help me, and an equally brilliant secretary, Bobbie Andress, so I had the kind of in-house organizational support needed to accomplish the goals of the new Society. Another advantage was that, in 1989, there was an absence of bureaucratic obstruction; if you wanted to do something, you took a few risks, but you just did it. Thus, I accepted the honor, as I felt that, if this were done properly, it could become established as a truly international, democratic Society, run by experts in ultrasound and not just representatives of societies, earning respect and attaining longevity. To meet the requirements of my brief meant planning the congress for early December 1990. With the short lead-time, securing a conference center was a priority, so, over the remaining months of 1989, I spent any free time I had touring round major London conference venues and talking to their management. I hoped for 1000 delegates, so most venues were too small, while others had insufficient space for a commercial exhibition or lacked enough quality hotels close by. Eventually, the choice boiled down to the Methodist Central Hall and the QEII Centre, both situated centrally near the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. While the Methodist Hall was considerably cheaper and had an impressive space for plenary sessions, the QEII was London's premier venue, had four lecture theaters and lots of breakout rooms, making it ideal for our purposes. It was, unfortunately, booked in November and December 1990, so we accepted a slight slippage of dates to 7–10 January 1991, when we could take over the entire QEII Conference Centre. I dipped into my research fund for the deposit, and the deal was sealed. During the Christmas break in 1989, while sitting in a cold office at King's, I had a moment of panic as I realized that, while we may have a conference hall, we did not have a conference organizer to plan travel arrangements and events, so I dug out the London phone book and located all such organizations. The calls went unanswered except for one, an organization called ‘Meeting Point’. Caroline Windsor, the owner, responded and convinced me she could do the job, even though her small organization had not handled a meeting as large as we were planning. Impressed with her enthusiasm, I gave Caroline the contract immediately and she, with the help of Bobbie, pushed forward without delay. In the meantime, I asked my colleagues, Kypros Nicolaides (fetal medicine), Lindsey Allan (fetal echo), David Griffin (Doppler) and Tom Bourne (gynecology), for help in designing a scientific program to include the best speakers from around the world. I also phoned colleagues in Europe and the USA, for advice on promising researchers to strengthen the program; Larry Platt was particularly helpful in identifying the best upcoming talent from the USA. In retrospect, I feel proud that we cast the net so wide and I cannot think of a more representative meeting of the talents in Ob/Gyn ultrasound. We selected 120 speakers, covering the spectrum of recent advances in ultrasound in our specialty. By April 1990, the program was complete. That same month, we had an executive committee meeting in London, when officers of the Society were proposed and chosen. Manfred Hansmann became vice president and Asim Kurjak secretary. During this meeting, we unveiled the draft scientific program, which was approved. We also decided to give an award each year, the ‘Ian Donald Gold Medal’ to the individual who ‘has made a significant scientific contribution to the advancement of diagnostic ultrasound in obstetrics and gynecology and who has changed the way ultrasound is practiced through research or innovation’. It was decided that the first holder of the award should be Alfred Kratochwil, an early pioneer of transvaginal ultrasound, and that the award should be presented by Alix Donald, Ian Donald's widow. As we were constrained for finances, many of the committee stayed in my home during this meeting and were treated to a tasty but unhealthy English breakfast of bacon, eggs and fried tomato cooked by myself. The committee toured the conference facilities and pronounced them more than satisfactory. Due to lack of money, we did not hold any more committee meetings in London but communicated frequently by telephone. At the end of April 1990, we sent the flyer (Appendix S1) announcing the world congress, with a summary of the program, to every ObGyn department in the world that we could discover and to every medical ultrasound meeting. Sturla Eik-Nes, who had become president of EFSUMB, tells me that the flyer caused some consternation among the committee members during their annual conference, but he was enthusiastic about our new Society, which we had, by this time, named officially as the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology (ISUOG), and he signed up eight delegates from his department in Norway to attend the meeting. I sent invitations to speakers and chairmen on 7th May (Appendices S2 and S3) and received an overwhelmingly positive response, despite being unable to support airfares, even for our luminaries. From the time of sending this letter of invitation, the committee decided that ISUOG was founded. From September onwards, Bobbie and I nervously counted the number of registered delegates daily, as we had calculated that we had to

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