First Ever European Ultrafest: Maribor, Slovenia

Last Year UCI, held the first ever Sonosite supported Ultrafest. Then it expanded to Stanford and TJU with resounding success. Last weekend, it went to Europe with the first Ultrafest in Maribor, Slovenia. Below is an excerpt from an email we received about the event:

Students working with live models and the Sonosite NanoMaxx

Dear all;

It is with great pleasure that I am writing to briefly summarize the first ever European Ultrafest in Maribor, Slovenia.

Upon opening online registration, the response was absolutely amazing - more than 200 medical students applied in a matter of minutes. Students were then given video materials and custom learning objectives to prepare for the event.

On Saturday we had a blast! Students enjoyed it, the teachers had a lot of fun and it really was a party with ultrasound. About 80 students and 12 Ultrasound instructors had 6 hours of hands-on time at 6 ultrasound stations. Students were well prepared and eager to learn as much as possible in the allotted time.

Students learning with phantoms on the Sonosite Edge

The evaluations are top notch from all sides and students, (especially the younger ones), really have an even more positive attitude towards ultrasound in medical education. There has also been been calls from many pre-clinical med students to incorporate ultrasound into our curriculum. I believe that the targets of our first Ultrafest have been met. We also recorded a video, similar to UC Irvine's post promo video which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DtDGfB7bj0&hd=1. It is in Slovenian. Some of the instructors and 1st and 6th year medical students share their impressions of Ultrafest and their views of the role of ultrasound in undergraduate medical education. On behalf of our team I would like to thank you all for your support and help in the process. Chanel from UCI has been especially helpful with her ongoing support and sharing the toolkit and Dr. Fox for taking time from his busy schedule to record a video lecture to officially open European Ultrafest. We are looking forward to the next Ultrafest, probably as soon as May 2015, due to the positive interest. We are already in talks with student from the University of Ljubljana to organize a nation-wide event the next time around. Hopefully accommodating up to 200 students. Finally, I would like to use this opportunity to invite you all to our next Ultrafest! Slovenia is a very scenic country and when you visit, we'll make sure to give you a proper tour! Best regards Jan Hansel