ISUOG Outreach Workshop in Rome!

(Outreach Workshop in Montreal – image courtesy of ISUOG Outreach)

Well, we’ve done it last year and we’ll be doing it again this year!

ISUOG Outreach is happy to announce its Outreach Workshop taking place on Wednesday, 28 September 2016 from 13:50 to 14:50 in the Rome Park Marriott Hotel (in the Botticelli Hub Space). Much like last year, the aim will be to engage with audience members on key topics regarding ISUOG’s development work on the field and to provide a forum of discussion around innovating ways and methods to promote sustainable development in both women’s health and ultrasound training.

Title: Outreach Workshop – teaching ultrasound on the field

Introduction: ISUOG Outreach – where we are at and what has been done (A. Johnson and G. Baez)

Hub 1: Tricks of the trade (A. Johnson)
Hub 2: From a distance – a method for ultrasound quality control between continents  (H. Feltovitch)
Hub 3: Theory vs. Practical – how much of each is needed and where? (T. Cohen-Overbeek)
Hub 4: How to strengthen relationships between trainer and trainee (T. Eggebo)

Looking forward to seeing you there are we discuss more on how to impact lives and empower local practitioners on the ground!

ISUOG: Travel Grant to Rome Winners

From left to right: E. Enabudoso (Nigeria), J. Pervin (Bangladesh), S. Wanyonyi (Kenya), A. Bouzid (Tunisia), and N. Enaruna (Nigeria)

Something new is in the air, and we’re excited to share it with you! This year, ISUOG took the exiting initiative to launch for the first time its brand new Travel Grant scheme, aimed to support education and research in under served regions of the world.  ISUOG had made available up to five travel grants for young researchers from these regions to attend the 26th World Congress on Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology that will be held in Rome from 25-28 September 2016.

After a careful selection process, we are happy to announce the following candidates as the winners:

• Ehigha Enabudoso (Nigeria)
• Jesmin Pervin (Bangladesh)
• Nosa Enaruna (Nigeria)
• Sikolia Wanyonyi (Kenya)
• Arij Bouzid (Tunisia)

The winners will each receive complimentary registration, round-trip travel to Rome, four-nights’ accommodation and will have the opportunity to present their abstract during the 26^th World Congress to ISUOG’s global audience. For those attending the World Congress this year, we hope you’ll join us in congratulating these winners for their outstanding achievement. For more information about the travel grant, please visit our page: http://www.isuog.org/WorldCongress/2016/travelgrant/

Zika Humanitarian Response: Free Multilingual ISUOG Webinar on Zika – 19 May!

Physician Education Update!

FREE ISUOG Outreach Webinar
Congenital Zika Virus Syndrome: how to improve your diagnostic capabilities
Thursday May 19, 2016
English, Spanish and Portuguese

As pregnant women and their fetuses are being diagnosed with Congenital Zika Virus Syndrome with increased frequency in Brazil as well as in other Latin American countries, it becomes crucial to educate regional practitioners on the way to make these diagnoses as early as possible.

This free Webinar will provide participants with the necessary tools to differentiate between unaffected and affected.

English: Click here for more information, to view the full program, and to register now!

Spanish: Haga click para mas información, ver el programa, y registrarse ahora!

Portuguese: Clique aquí para mais informação, ver o programa e inscrever-se agora!

Guest Bloggers wanted for ISUOG Outreach!

(Image by G.A Baez for ISUOG Outreach)

The ISUOG Outreach Program thrives on one thing – passion. Whether on the field or in the scanning room, we aim to share that passion with all our followers via our blog and on Facebook.

Have you volunteered with ISUOG Outreach before? Are you currently on the field conducting Outreach around OB/GYN ultrasound training? Have you yourself benefitted from ISUOG Outreach?

We are now accepting guest bloggers for 2016. Interested? Email us and let us know what you want to share. Your experience on the field? A topic related to ISUOG Outreach work? Something else?

This is a small way to make a big impact on how the world views ISUOG Outreach. Email outreach@isuog.org with you name, profession, country of residence and what you want to share.

Why women’s health is a vital part of global human rights

Mothers in Ghana
(Image courtesy of Gesu Antonio Baez for ISUOG Outreach – Ghana)

10 December was Human Rights Day. When Hillary Clinton made the statement, “Women’s rights are Human Rights” during the 1995 UN Conference on Women in Beijing, it rocked global consciousness in recognising women’s rights as an integral part of human rights. But what about women’s health?  Is it a part of human rights and how does ISUOG defend this? ISUOG’s International Development Officer, Gesù Antonio Báez, explores this topic further.

 

It would be foolish to believe that women’s health didn’t play a crucial role in global women’s rights or human rights in general. Yet somehow, despite the numerous international conventions and covenants that have been championed by the UN and its global partners, women’s health has been pushed as merely a topic for development and humanitarian endeavours, as clearly demonstrated with the now defunct Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and newly initiated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) this past September.

Of course, this is not to belittle its category as an important item on the developmental agenda; in fact, it’s paramount to it! But women’s health amounts to so much more than as a single task to accomplish in a nation’s pursuit towards overall development. Because truth be told, women’s health – particularly their right to quality healthcare – is vital not just for global development, but crucial in the fight to defend women’s rights. For if women are the backbone to society and essential for a country’s empowerment, then denying them adequate healthcare is both a violation of their human rights and a denial for a country in achieving its true potential in global development.  Human rights are, first and foremost, a matter of preserving dignity and guaranteeing women access to competent doctors and health services is a task in which all nations and key human rights agents must be willing to invest upon in order to properly demonstrate their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the international community exactly 68 years ago on 10 December 1947.

As an agent for women’s health, ISUOG’s mission is to ensure that every woman has access to competent ultrasound scanning and that OB/GYN conditions are effectively diagnosed because it is a women’s right – her human right – to receive proper treatment and care.

Either via an ISUOG Approved Course in Nigeria, a World Congress in Rome, an International Symposium in India, or an Outreach program in Papua New Guinea,  ISUOG strives to ensure this sacred right is respected and honoured by empowering OB/GYN professionals with the necessary skills needed to conduct a proper scan with quality educational resources, no matter where in the world they are located because the key to ISUOG’s mission is every woman.

Women’s rights are human rights as Hillary Clinton said nearly twenty years ago in Beijing, but women’s health is a fundamental part of this because it honours the women’s right to live. Through ISUOG’s mission and role in the important task of upholding this right, I believe we are on the way towards making an overall respect for this right completely universal.

Having your say….ISUOG Outreach during the World Congress

Outreach Chair Dr. Anthony (Tony) Johnson and Outreach Committee member, Prof. John Hyett brainstorming during the Outreach Workshop (Image courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum)

Opinions count and voices matter; it’s taking into consideration the views of others that help make an international organisation dynamic. With ISUOG Outreach growing, it was time to hear from our most important audience on  the future of Outreach- you!

This year’s theme for the Outreach Workshop during the 25^th World Congress in Montréal was ‘Have your say!’. A passionate and dynamic group gathered as ISUOG’s International Development Officer, Gesù Antonio Báez, introduced the concept to them, with an emphasis on how their views and opinions mattered in this session. “We want to hear from you,” he said, “so tell us where you think we should go”.

International Development Officer, Gesu Antonio Baez, going over the plan for the workshop (Image courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum)

The audience was broken into four groups occupying four hub spaces, with each tackling a topic for discussion to see where ISUOG Outreach could expand and improve. The 2015 Ian Donald Gold Medal Winner, Torvid Kiserud (Norway) and Titia Cohen-Overbeek (the Netherlands) led discussions on how to make the most of our partnerships and identifying “friends in the right places” in order to increase impact and promote a sustainable output for projects. Alfred Abuhamad (USA) and Ann Tabor (Denmark) instead brainstormed with their group on developing an ideal template for basic training in an outreach program, while Helen Feltovitch (USA) and Sturla Eik-Nes (Norway) delved further with their group on trying to find out what role ISUOG had with technology in low resource settings.

An interesting concept out of all the groups was the “mind mapping” session. Led by Outreach Chair Tony Johnson (USA) and John Hyett (Australia), the group was engaged in trying to map out on a large whiteboard the clinical pathways that needed to be identified before an Outreach program took place.

Outreach Chair Dr. Tony Johnson (USA) standing with ISUOG’s Education Development Manager, Megan Chard, as they work on the MindMap with the group (Image courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum)

“It felt engaging and I was very motivated by the workshop because it made us feel part of the process.,” said one attendee, “. I’ll totally attend another one!”

The key to ISUOG’s success is teamwork; from the discussions of the Outreach committee to the work of our volunteers on the field, team effort is essential to ISUOG Outreach and therefore it was only natural to work as one in order to generate and develop ideas for taking the program to the next phase. Outreach is growing and still has a long way to go, but together with our supporters, we can achieve our goals and fulfil our mission in improving women’s health.

Teamwork! Group 1 brainstorming around the mind map (Image courtesy of Erika Rosenbaum)

Empowerment – final day of Ghana program

Trainee Abekah Adams Jonah of Old Tafo Hospital visibly proud on his new scanning capabilities  (Image courtesy of Gesu Antonio Baez for ISUOG Outreach)

All good things come to an end, as they say. After a compelling five days conducting the Outreach program in Kumasi, it came to conclusion on Friday, 20 November.

There could be only one word to summarise the final day – empowerment. And surely the trainees finally felt empowered as they began to operate and scan the machines by themselves (under the watchful eye of their trainers, of course). Most precious of all were their smiles when they scanned on the donated GE Healthcare Voluson machines and began to understand the images they were scanning, while their trainers exuded pride from their faces in the backround.

The program wrapped up with a closing ceremony at the Regional Conference Admin Centre in Central Kumasi, featuring closing talks from Outreach Chair Dr. Anthony Johnson, the partnering NGO’s Executive Director Mrs. Abenaa Boateng of Women’s Health to Wealth (WHW) and addresses made by the Regional Director of Health Services for the Ashanti Region and the Director of Kumasi Metro Area. The address emphasised the importance of the training to local women and the Regional Director reminded the trainees that their primary mission was to serve the women of Ghana; a mission they should always remember in their practice.

Women’s Health to Wealth Executive Director Abenaa Boateng giving closing remarks besides the Director of Kumasi Metro and the Regional Director of Health Services in the Ashanti Region. (Image courtesy of Gesu Antonio Baez for ISUOG Outreach)

Certificates of achievements were awarded to each participant, distributed by ISUOG’s International Development Officer Gesù Antonio Báez and the Regional Director. The ceremony proved to be emotional towards the end as several trainees expressed their gratitude for what they learned and the difference it made in their practice. “You taught us to expect more of ourselves and go beyond” said trainee Alberta Nintang of Kumasi South Regional Hospital.

But this isn’t the last that the trainees will hear from their trainers. Following the program, the trainees will continue to keep in touch with their trainers via WhatsApp, a popular mobile text messaging app, which will allow them to share scanned images from across the globe and receive constant support and feedback on the quality of their scanning from their mentors in the weeks to follow.

“We’ve given you the tools,” said Dr. Johnson in his closing speech, “it’s on you to use them.”

 

Dr. Anthony Johnson giving the closing address (Image courtesy of Gesu Antonio Baez for ISUOG Outreach)

Day 4: Putting theory into practice at South Kumasi Hospital

Outreach continues for its 4th day of training in Kumasi, Ghana. Today, we’re following the group to South Kumasi Hospital where an exceptionally large amount of gynecology cases were presented today – which came in handy as the group has just learned tips and tricks for conducting a transvaginal scan! Local ISUOG Trainer Buah Hamilton showed, the benefits for identifying both gynecological and obstetrical issues were numerous.

Guided by both ISUOG trainer Buah Hamilton and GE Healthcare’s Tammy Anderson, the group identified cyst growths in patients and a peculiar case of an infantile uterus in a 15-year-old patient, resulting in discussion amongst the group on what the follow up and next procedure should be.

There was also a “lunch lecture” by Buah Hamilton over scanning the Gyne patient which helped put a lot of the hands on training into focus theoretically.

The trainees have been demonstrating so much enthusiasm and really putting their newly acquired skill into practice. With tomorrow being the last day, it will be impressive to see what they’ve learned throughout the week and get a feel on how they plan to hone their skills in going forward.

Day 3: “I want to keep this up,” said trainee Evelyn Britum

It’s day 3 of ISUOG Outreach in Kumasi, Ghana and today we’re following the trainers in Suntreso Government Hospital. ISUOG Trainer Yusif Yacub began by covering tips for conducting a transvaginal scan and a review of scanning the second trimester patient.

The students were eager to get their hands on the machine, so GE Healthcare’s Tammy Anderson helped guide them on how to use the newly donated Voluson E I.

It was indeed an emotional day, handling patients who has not had an ultrasound scan before and the smiles on the overjoyed mothers seeing their babies for the first time on the machine only motivated the trainees to learn more and continued scanning.

“It was beautiful,” said trainee Evelyn Britum, her eyes widening and gleaming with excitement from the reaction to the mother’s face to the image, “I want to keep this up.”

And keep up they will! Stay tuned we continue our program in Ghana!

#LoveUltrasound

ISUOG Outreach in Ghana: Kicking off day two!

Each of the trainees spread out to different regional hospitals this time to take a group of 8 trainees with them for hands-on work.

Today, we’ll be focusing on Old Tafo Hospital located in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Kumasi. Droves of patients waited for the ISUOG team near the manicured courtyard of the hospital, dressed in their colorful garments that reflected the tradition of the Ashanti region. The trainees were as excited as Janet Horenstein and Tammy Anderson and guided the group on using the new GE Voluson P8 machine, which was donated to the hospital. “These trainees are both enthusiastic and passionate about scanning and making a difference in the lives of women,” says Gesù Antonio Báez, ISUOG’s International Development Officer who’s reporting from Kumasi. “It’s inspirational and promising for the future”.

The training session also helped reveal a heart defect in a 3rd trimester patient, prompting the trainees to take action in advising an emergency C-Section and careful monitoring once the baby is born.

“I’m loving this new machine,” says Adams Abekah who is based in Old Tafo, “but I’m excited to learn more and [perfect the techniques.] That is my dream.”

Stay tuned as we visit the trainees in the other hospitals in the Kumasi Metro region!