The World Leading
Mission & Vision
The World Interactive Network Focused On Critical UltraSound (WINFOCUS) is the world leader scientific network committed to develop Point-of-Care Ultrasound practice, research, education, technology, and networking, addressing the needs of patients, institutions, services, and communities living in out-of-hospital and in-hospital critical scenarios.
Our Goals
- To identify critical scenarios where ultrasound, when implemented and incorporated into point-of-care, represents a critical added value to improve management, performance and outcomes.
- To identify ultrasound “point-of-care” applications within extra-hospital and in-hospital scenarios, consistent with prevention, triage, diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of the critical patient.
- To identify the technical, clinical, organizational, and social competencies necessary for effective incorporation and diffusion of “point-of-care” ultrasound into critical scenarios, the methodology, technology, and instrumentation necessary for its implementation, and the feasibility, sustainability, and accuracy of the identified technologies.
- To evaluate and compare the experiences of different investigators through networking actions.
- To develop research projects and conferences;
To promote quality assured training programs, incorporating them, where appropriate, into school and university curricula.
Our Worldwide Network
A message from the president
Anthony J. Dean
Winfocus President
Dear fellow PoCUS practitioner and sonologist,
I have the honor and fortune to have been elected president of WINFOCUS. I would like to take a moment to reach out to everyone in the world’s Point-of-Care Ultrasound community.
But first, a shout of thanks to Gabriele Via, who has led the society boldly, imaginatively, and decisively with extraordinary accomplishments over the past two years.
Clinical practice becomes more challenging every day, bringing new patient care algorithms, more complicated protocols, bigger care teams, new medications with multiplying side effects and interactions, and new illnesses arising from the ashes of previous “cures”. There are cutbacks in personnel, supply shortages, stress in the workplace, financial strain, and erosion of professional autonomy.
The recipe varies by workplace, institution, and country but always includes these ingredients. Information Technology (IT) sometimes helps, but every new miracle of connectivity comes at a price exacted on our autonomy, individuality, time, freedom, or some other previously unappreciated pleasure.
Standing as a bulwark against this onslaught, Point-of-Care Ultrasound is a boon to patients and providers alike. In limited resource settings, it is often the only means of getting anatomical and physiological information about a patient’s disease.
Ultrasound provides immediate vital information about heart, lung, and abdominal complaints. In the hands of prenatal care providers – nurses, health officers, midwives – it plays a vital role in the fight to decrease perinatal mortality in the developing world. In every healthcare setting, from the richest to the poorest, ultrasound is the tool of choice to guide the treatment of the critically ill over the next seconds, minutes, and hours.
PoCUS is a huge boon to our patients, but every time we use it, it also enriches us:
Humans, in general, and healthcare professionals are rewarded by doing well what they do. We have spent years in training and practice. Ultrasound increases our professional fulfillment by making us smarter, better, and more effective at our job.
If you are old enough to have practiced in the 90’s when access to medical imaging was restricted, or you are working now in a limited-resource setting, you smile every time you pick up the ultrasound probe because it makes you more confident in your decision-making, whether it is reassuring a patient that they can go home, or recommending a painful and costly treatment. For those of us lucky enough to have learnt it, PoCUS decreases diagnostic uncertainty and increases accuracy and job satisfaction.
Our time with our patients is continually eroded by tasks outside of the patient’s room: reviewing clinical data, lab results images, and documenting care. Ultrasound is the only medical innovation of the last 100 years that has brought the practitioner into increased contact with the patient. As we scan, the patient and family watch our faces. They see the skill of our hands and minds at work; they ask us questions, and we get to go over details of the history and learn a bit about their lives. Whether in an ambulatory clinic managing someone’s swollen legs or a critical care unit treating a patient with multiorgan failure, ultrasound reinvests us with some of the power of laying on our hands and reconstitutes our bond with our patients.
PoCUS teaching is a primary Mission for WINFOCUS. In many places, there are still clinicians who don’t know how ultrasound will improve their practice or have not had the chance to learn it. At the same time, ultrasound is increasingly recognized as a skill that should be taught in medical school. This represents a new market for ultrasound education of the world’s approximately 1.2 million medical students. WINFOCUS will also continue to promote PoCUS practice by supporting research, policy, governance, and networking in the global PoCUS community. In the next two years, I hope that many more of you will join us and help our efforts to promote PoCUS.
WINFOCUS is a forum for ideas, a meeting place for the PoCUS community, and a catalyst for those who want to improve healthcare through sonology and to support organizations for practitioners. WINFOCUS needs your input to allow it to become more responsive to your priorities and the priorities of sonologists wherever they practice.
Together, we will move forward as the standard bearers for the most revolutionary and far-reaching medical technology of our time: the best thing for our patients and for us.
Sincerely,
Anthony J. Dean
President WINFOCUS
Board of Directors
Anthony Dean
WINFOCUS President
Philadelphia, PA, USA
Department of Emergency Medicine
Professor Emeritus of Emergency Medicine and of Emergency Medicine in Radiology
Board of Directors PURE (Point-of-care Ultrasound in Resource-limited Environments)
Gabriele Via
WINFOCUS Past President
Lugano, Switzerland
Cardiac Anesthesia and Intensive Care
Cardiocentro Ticino
Intensivist, Anesthesiologist
Director, WINFOCUS Cardiac Ultrasound Training Program
Julina Noor
WINFOCUS President Elect
Shah Alam, Malaysia
Associate Professor Emergency Medicine Universiti Teknologi MARA
President for the Society of Critical Care & Emergency Sonography Malaysia.
Arif Hussain
WINFOCUS General Secretary
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
King Saud University for Health Sciences
Head of Cardiac Critical Care King Abdulaziz Medical City
Lawrence A. Melniker
WINFOCUS Treasurer
New York City, NY, USA
New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Vice Chief, Quality Management, Dept of Emergency Medicine, New York-Presbyterian Hospital Brooklyn Methodist Hospital
Miguel Montorfano
WINFOCUS Board Member
Rosario, Argentina
Hospital de Emergencias “Dr. Clemente Alvarez”
Chair Ultrasound & Vascular Doppler Department.
James Connolly
WINFOCUS Board Member
Newcastle, United Kingdom
Royal Victoria Infirmary
Department of Emergency Medicine
He specialises in ultrasound in emergency care, medical education (surgical skills) and the annual thoracotomy course (PERT).
Tomás Villén
WINFOCUS Board Member
Madrid, Spain
Francisco de Vitoria University
Associate Professor.
Director of Point of Care Ultrasound Curriculum.
Chair of Ultrasound Section of Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine.
Peiman Nazerian
WINFOCUS Board Member
Firenze, Italy
Vice-director of the Emergency Department (ED) of Careggi University Hospital, Firenze, Italy
Director of the Division of Point of Care Ultrasound of Careggi University Hospital,
Firenze, Italy.
Alfonso Cibinel Gian
WINFOCUS Board Member
Torino, Italy
Director – Emergency Education ASL TO3
Specialist in Internal Medicine
Specialist in Cardiology
Certified in Clinical Ultrasonography and Cardiovascular Ultrasonography
Laura Hurtado
WINFOCUS Board Member
Buenos Aires, Argentina
UNCPBA (Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires) School of Medicine Professor
Ultrasound Instructor : Hospital Municipal “Dr. Hector Cura” -Olavarría – Argentina
Nuno Cortesão
WINFOCUS Board Member
Porto, Portugal
Winfocus Portugal ITC Director
Pulmonologist and Intensivist at Hospital da Arrábida – Gaia
Adrian Wong
WINFOCUS Board Member
London, United Kingdoom
Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at King’s College London.
Member of the Intensive Care Society FUSIC Committee, sits on the ESICM Executive Committee and an examiner for the European Diploma of Intensive Care Medicine.
Carmela Graci
WINFOCUS Board Member
Milan, Italy
Winfocus Milan ITC Director
Ao Niguarda Ca’ Granda Hospital, Milan (Italy)
Ramón Nogué Bou
WINFOCUS Board Member
Lleida, Spain
Professor of Medicine at University of Lleida
President at WINFOCUS Iberia
Director of Postgraduate training in Clinical Ultrasound
Stephanie Doniger
WINFOCUS Board Member
Los Angeles, USA
Pediatric Emergency Ultrasound
Trauma Consensus Committee, ICC Vascular Access, ICC on US in Medical Education.
She has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières teaching POCUS in Guinea- Bissau, and currently volunteers as a Telemedicine Medical Specialist.
Marco Vinicio Umaña Ramírez
WINFOCUS Board Member
San José, Costa Rica
Clinical Chief of the Emergency Deparment, Hospital Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia. San José, Costa Rica.
Professor assigned Postgraduate System, University of Costa Rica. Specializing in emergency medicine.
Winfocus Costa Rica Director
Ha Young-Rock
WINFOCUS Board Member
Seongnam, Korea.
Critical Care Medicine, Seongnam Citizens Medical Center, Seongnam, Korea.
Certified critical care physician and echocardiographer.
He is one of the BOD of Korean society of critical care medicine (KSCCM) and ex-president of Society of Emergency and Critical Care Imaging (SECCI).
Shaik Farid Abdull Wahab
WINFOCUS Board Member
Kelantan, Malaysia
Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia Kubang Kerian,
Head of Department & Consultant Emergency Physician and Senior Lecturer Department of Emergency Medicine Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Program Director Emergency & Critical Care Ultrasound Fellowship Program USM.
Mateusz Zawadka
WINFOCUS Board Member
Warsaw, Poland
Assistant Professor at Medical University of Warsaw,
The Polish Center for International Aid: Ultrasound program coordinator
Secretariat Team
Davide Neri
General Manager
Cristina Recanses
Marketing and Communication Manager
Quim Fuster
Communication and Digital Strategist
Marina Guzman
Project Assistant
Daniel Bellini
Web Master
Daniel Pereira
WF Academy IT Manager