Professor David Oxborough, Professor of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular Physiology at Liverpool John Moores University and Dr Liam Ring, Consultant Cardiologist at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, look forward to their term as Co-Chairs of the British Society of Echocardiography’s (BSE) Education Committee.
It is a privilege for us to have been given the opportunity to lead the Education Committee into the next three years.
The Education Committee is in an excellent position due to the extremely committed individuals behind the scenes but also from the dynamic and innovative leadership of Dr Dan Augustine and Mr Shaun Robinson. This was highlighted so clearly during the first face to face/hybrid conference since the COVID pandemic. The content and the organisation held their own but more importantly the desire and drive from the members, articulating their approval of the society and the direction and priorities of education. The trajectory has been fantastic and it is a honour to be able to take the reins at this stage of our echocardiographic journey. The tracks that we find ourselves on are heading to a place where education continues to be the fundamental backbone of the society which will be consolidated by our approval for Royal Charter, further highlighting the important underpinning educational frameworks of our organisation. We will continue to navigate this journey with the members’ education at the forefront of our minds and plans.
The Education Committee has recently seen some new faces as well as said goodbye to others who have demonstrated significant commitment over the years. This new structure has allowed us to take a fresh look at roles within the committee and the tasks ahead that we can prioritise for us all as members. We must ensure that the content and structure of our meetings address current topics in echocardiography as well as service delivery. These include the use of artificial intelligence to support our advanced role as echocardiographers and the insights that we can learn from big data. Alongside these we will continue to ensure that there is adequate content for the full range of our members to address fundamental principles, innovative practice and those really interesting topics that excite us to pick up the transducer in anticipation of what is possible. These ideas will carry us through the annual conference, advanced imaging and Irish meetings as well as our regional webinars and we will continue to listen and adapt.
Over the past few years we have seen an abundance of guideline documents that have brought evidence based practice into our labs and enhanced departmental standardisation. These guidelines are an integral component to quality assurance and good practice and we feel very strongly about them. We will be developing a strong link with our own research and audit committee to develop national audits of guideline use and adherence as well as benefits/weaknesses. It is with this information that we can review, refine and keep these guidelines current and fit for purpose.
The online educational content through our eLearning resources are envied worldwide and are an important addition to the Society’s educational portfolio. They allow our members to manage their own educational needs around their own time commitments and serve a clear purpose. With the ongoing challenges within the workplace it is apparent that these resources will become even more important to our members as a resource for continual professional development. In view of this, it will be one of our priorities to develop this content to support published guidelines as well as other important current topics that we face in the world of echocardiography.
As we sit and reflect, it is so clear that we are in a wonderful place of education. Our amazing tool that we devote our lives to using to make other people’s lives better is developing alongside the evolution of technology, society and healthcare. We feel that our priorities and targets for the next three years are realistic and important and will continue to support our journey along the echocardiography track.