I am really pleased and excited to announce that after years of planning and work, we are officially launching the accredited Postgraduate Certificate in Ultrasound for Family Medicine. The modalities covered in the PgCert were decided based on a survey gathering feedback from local Family Medicine practitioners to ensure that the course really meets the working needs of physicians and include the following:

1. Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)
2. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA)
3. Hepatobiliary
4. Renal
5. Core ECHO
6. Musculo-skeletal (MSK) basics and soft tissue

Some background. Since 2011, I have had a passion to introduce the use of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) into medical practice in Malta by delivering short courses. I am absolutely convinced about the benefits of POCUS for doctors, patients and departments through personal experience, from the extensive evidence base and by witnessing its implementation in the Emergency Department.

Over the years there has been an ever increasing requirement for patient imaging, heightened medico-legal risks and greater patient expectations. Point of Care Ultrasound makes doctors better diagnosticians, focusing their management and referral, improving their professional satisfaction and decreasing their medico legal risk. It allows visually guided interventions to ensure safer, quicker and more successful procedures.

I have been organising short courses in Point of Care ultrasound since 2011 including  Level 1 US courses as well as specialty POCUS courses for Surgery, Anaesthesia and Paeds. In 2021, we founded Ultrasound Academy to be able to deliver higher quality ultrasound education to different specialties. Ultrasound Academy is now an accredited Higher Educational Institution in Malta.

With time it became clear that if POCUS was going to taken up independently by practitioners in different specialties, we needed to develop a long course format that fulfills the following criteria:

1. Ideally not longer than a year

2. Specialty specific since modalities have to be relevant to the candidate depending on their specialty

3. Allow a good degree of flexibility to allow for busy or erratic schedules

4. Have a practical rather than an academic focus

5. Have a dedicated mentor to support the candidate at all stages

6. Facilitate scanning practice

7. Accredited as an MQF Level 7 Post graduate Certificate

I am proud to announce that the courses have been designed to meet the above criteria to allow clinicians to access quality ultrasound education with a good educational governance despite all the challenges of a busy professional life.

For your information, the course has been accredited by the Malta Higher and Further Education Authority (the National body responsible for course accreditation) as an MQF Level 7 Postgraduate Certificate course after a thorough accreditation process that adheres to the European Framework for accreditation. The 2 foreign evaluators involved with the accreditation process are authorities in the field of POCUS worldwide.

For the full information about the courses and to browse the course prospectus kindly go to the website ultrasoundacademy.org. The first intake will be for the Jan -November 2025 intake. Unfortunately places are limited to 10 spots per course to ensure a good mentor to mentee ratio, and the first available course has been filled, however we have opened registration for a second course for 2025 and will run it if there is sufficient interest.

If anyone needs more information please don’t hesitate to email me on info@ultrasoundacademy.org or email me personally on konradborg@gmail.com.

Best regards

Konrad Borg

Emergency Physician