Advanced Metrology for Ultrasound in Medicine,27–28 April 2004

Abstract

AMUM 2004 proved to be a great success and provided a fantastic opportunity for the world'sultrasound experts from medicine, industry and academia to explore the measurement challengespresented by new and emerging clinical ultrasound equipment. There were a total of 88 attendees. Ofthese 39 were from the UK, 22 from the rest of Europe, and 27 from outside Europe. 31 of thedelegates were from industry, 22 were university-based, 18 from hospitals, 10 from other NationalMetrology Institutes and regulatory bodies, and 7 from NPL. Test your knowledge of the ultrasoundcommunity by trying to name all the faces in the group photograph! It was especially gratifying to seeso many major medical equipment manufacturers represented—including Siemens, Philips, Esaote,Kontron, Pie Medical, G.E., Hitachi, Aloka and Imasonic—since it is essential that there is a gooddialogue between industry and the measurement community.The presentations were split into 8 oral sessions—Hydrophones, Hydrophone measurements, Safetyand thermal hazard, Measurement challenges for diagnostic ultrasound, Measurement of therapyfields, Tissue interaction, Novel measurement methods, and Measurement challenges for therapeuticultrasound; and 3 poster sessions—Performance of diagnostic equipment, Measurement and safety,and Field modelling. It was always my hope that this conference would provide a framework for thedevelopment of measurement methods to meet the metrological challenges we face over the nextdecade. To this end, I have asked the Chairs of each oral and poster session to give their views of theirown session and of the more general requirements in that topic area.The feedback I received both during and subsequent to the meeting was almost uniformly good;this was borne out by the returned questionnaires, with most categories being scored excellent or good.I was delighted at the high standard of the presentations and to see delegates of such reputation andexperience in the audience. This clearly shows that there is a need for such a conference.The commercial exhibition, although small, gave delegates the opportunity to discuss theirrequirements with three of the most important suppliers of ultrasound measuremnt devices—PrecisionAcoustics, Onda Corporation, and Sonora Medical Systems—and to see the latest developments. Italso gave the companies concentrated access to a large number of important customers and potentialcustomers.Socially, also, the event was a great success. The welcome reception (plus miniature `Big Band')was sponsored by Precision Acoustics and held in Bushy House, site of the original NPL; the galadinner in Hampton Court Palace was attended by more than 70 delegates who were treated to guidedtours of the magnificent gardens and an address by Dr Bob McGuinness, the Director of NPL.My thanks to everyone who attended or otherwise contributed to the success of AMUM2004. Iwould particularly like to acknowledge the contributions of the guest speakers, the scientific advisoryboard members, NPL colleagues and the AMUM secretariat, who made the whole thing run sosmoothly.