About SIUMB

The development of diagnostic techniques using ultrasound has had a complex evolution in Italy and around the world, without a single reference point. Doctors from different cultural backgrounds, in different centers, have dedicated themselves to ultrasound, each tackling the technological, physical, or clinical aspects that are most suited to their own specialist cultural baggage.

The work of the first Italian pioneers began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At first, interest in ultrasound diagnostics spread mainly among specialists in cardiology, ophthalmology, obstetrics, and neurology, the sectors where the prospects of this new technique seemed most promising. Relatively few radiologists, internists, or surgeons were involved in early ultrasound diagnostics, probably due to the complexity of the equipment and the difficulty of interpreting the first results. This multidisciplinary matrix of ultrasound diagnostics led to the need among “ultrasound specialists” to compare experiences and coordinate the growth and diffusion of the new methodology. For this purpose, the first conference of the SISUM (Italian Society for the Study of Ultrasound in Medicine), a federative scientific society, was held in Ferrara in 1975, bringing together all those interested in ultrasound diagnostics organized in autonomous Sections or Scientific Societies. Radiologists, gastroenterologists, and surgeons came together in a Society Section, gathering under a single broad scientific and professional area called “Internal Ultrasound”.

The cultural, scientific, and professional impetus that SISUM gave to the development of Italian ultrasound in its early years was significant, and its role in presenting Italian experiences in the international context was fundamental.

In 1978, in Bologna, SISUM hosted the Congress of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB), the first major showcase of Italian ultrasound in the world. However, as technology matured, the technique spread, and it became increasingly prevalent in the diagnosis of all organs and systems, the drive towards specific scientific-professional interests became predominant within its different components.

In 1982, the Internal Section was structured as an autonomous Society: the SIUI (Italian Society of Internal Ultrasonography). The National Congress, which the Society has been organizing annually since then, is a reference point for the presentation of the scientific work carried out by Italian researchers, a didactic tool that meets the ever-increasing demand for updates in internal ultrasound from Italian doctors, a meeting point and debate among ultrasound specialists from different clinical disciplines.

In 1983, SISUM, having exhausted its role as a driving force for Italian ultrasound, dissolved. Research topics and scientific and cultural relations discussed until then among ultrasound specialists of different backgrounds were mainly directed towards their respective clinical specialties.

In 1987, the SIUI, which continues to collect the multidisciplinary contribution of radiologists and internist and surgeon specialists, changes its name to SIUMB (Italian Society of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology), a name that still exists today. In the same year, its request for affiliation to the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology was accepted.

Therefore, at the international level, the SIUMB has the honor and burden of representing, through the activity of its members, all Italian ultrasound.

In 1990, the Society founded its own journal, the Italian Journal of Ultrasound, which hosts the result of Italian research in the field of ultrasound, the expression of the work of researchers from numerous and different study groups. The journal soon became the main point of aggregation for the scientific work of the members and an important tool for the cultural growth of Italian ultrasound as a whole.

In 1992, the Society confirmed the importance of its cultural role with the legal recognition…