The British Society of Echocardiography is a registered charity which represents clinical echocardiography professionals working at all levels and in all areas of the field. Our aim is to provide our members with the necessary support to deliver the highest standard of care in echocardiography.
Formed in 1990, we now have over 5,000 members based in the UK, Ireland and across 30 other countries around the world. These include cardiac physiologists, cardiologists, clinical scientists, intensivists, radiologists, anaesthetists, veterinarians, medical physicists, radiographers, and managerial, sales and technical staff.
We are a leading provider of accreditation for both individuals and departments/service providers and education. For individuals we offer formal accreditation in transthoracic, transoesophageal, stress, critical care, and congenital echocardiography. In addition, our level 1 accreditation is designed to be accessible to echo practitioners from a wide variety of backgrounds, with the crucial aim of maintaining high standards of clinical echocardiography in the acute emergency patient.
British Society of Echocardiography departmental accreditation is a recognised benchmark of quality and demonstrates that a department meets an established and robust quality standard. Echo quality accreditation is based on our Echo Quality Framework which provides a structured yet versatile approach to help departments ensure that high quality standards are met across the board.
Our education programme offers a wide range of online learning opportunities such as e-learning modules, presentations and webinars, as well as our flagship annual meeting, BSEcho which routinely attracts up to 1500 delegates and speakers from around the world. It provides practising echocardiographers with the opportunity to benefit from the knowledge of some of the leading thinkers in the echo community, learn about the latest advances and initiatives and to share best practice. The meeting is always well supported by our industry partners who provide hands on learning opportunities and a technical exhibition. An important element of the conference is the chance to network with colleagues and peers.
To promote best practice and the highest standard of care, the Society produces training guidelines to support the continuing advancement of cardiac ultrasound imaging and Doppler techniques.
The Society also publish a quarterly journal, ECHO, which provides our members with original content such as educational articles, examples of best practice, service audits and case reports in the field of echocardiography, as well as the latest news, updates, opinion pieces and job listings. ECHO is reviewed by editors for clinical accuracy but is not peer-reviewed. The editors encourage submissions from those who might not have previous experience of publishing their work.
Echo Research and Practice (ERP) is an open access peer-reviewed journal which aims to be the premier international journal for physicians, clinical scientists, sonographers, nurses and other allied health professionals practicing echocardiography and other cardiac imaging modalities. It publishes high quality clinical and basic research, reviews, videos and education materials across all echocardiography modalities and disciplines.