History of WFUMB and Ultrasound
In the second half of the twentieth century various National and International Societies and other groups around the world start to organize meetings devoted to Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology.
In 1969 The Societas Internationalis pro Diagnostica in Ophtalmologia, SIDUO organized its Third International Symposium in Vienna, and an International Congress on Diagnostic Ultrasound was included in this Symposium.
Based upon efforts to expand the cooperation on an international basis it was decided to create a non-profit scientific organization as a Federation of Organizations with interest in Diagnostic Ultrasound.
A Working Committee adopted by SIDUO and chaired by Dr. Vlieger, member of SIDUO and president of EFSUMB, Netherlands, Dr. Brown, USA, Dr. Wagai, Japan, Dr. Oksale, Finland, Dr. Kossoff, Australia and Dr. White, USA was formed and a constitution for the Federation, now called the World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, WFUMB was formulated. Dr. Vlieger was the President.
The Constitution of WFUMB was adopted in 1973, took effect in 1988 and was revised in 1997. In 1973 Dr. Baum, ophtalmologist and Past-President of AIUM became President.
| Year | Facts | Person/Event | Country/Society |
| 1761 | Auscultation | Leopold Auenbrugger | Austria |
| 1819 | Stethoscope | R.T.H. Laennec | France |
| 1826 | Experiment on velocity of sound in water | Jean-Daniel Colladon, Charles Sturm |
Switzerland |
| 1842 | Detection of the Doppler effect by Christian Doppler, Salzburg Austria | Christian Doppler | Austria |
| 1851 | Ophthalmoscope | Hermann Helmholtz | Germany |
| 1854 | Laryngoscope | Manuel Garcia (singer) | Spain |
| 1876 | Cystoscope | Max Nitze | Germany |
| 1877 | The theory of sound | Lord Rayleigh | England |
| 1880 | Discovery of the piezoelectric effect | Pierre and Jacques Curie | France |
| 1912 | The tragic loss of the Titanic | England | |
| 1914-1918 | WWI | ||
| 1917 | First piezoelectric US transducer using a single large quartz crystal | Paul Langevin | France |
| 1928 | US could be used to detect hidden flaws in metals | Sergei Sokolov | Soviet |
| 1931 | Invention of the echo sounder by Alexander Behm, Kiel | Alexander Behm | Germany |
| 1937 | US through transmission used to visualize ventricles in the brain | Karl Dussik, Friedrich Dussick |
Austria |
| 1939 | Der Ultraschall (English edition) published | L. Bergmann | Germany |
| 1939-1945 | WWII | ||
| 1941 | Pulse-echo US instrument with a second non-generating transducer to detect returning echoes | Donald Sproule and others working for Henry Hughes and Son |
England |
| 1941 | Reflectoscope with a single transducer as both generator and receiver | Floyd Firestone | USA |
| 1946 | Use of high-intensity US as a noninvasive surgical technique to treat brain-related disorders | William Fry | USA |
| 1947 | Hyperphonograms of cerebral ventricles produced | Karl Dussik, Friedrich Dussick | Austria |
| 1947 | Experiments on detection of gallstones and foreign bodies using A-mode presentation of reflected echoes | George Ludwig | USA |
| 1949 | Measured the thickness of excised bowel tissue using a Navy radar trainer operating at 15 MHz | John Wild | USA |
| 1949 | First International Congress on Ultrasound in Medicine in Erlangen and Dussik presented his hyperphonograms | Karl Dussick | USA |
| 1949 | Japan's first A-mode US equipment at the research laboratories of Nihon Musen (Japan Radio) Company (now Aloka) | Rokuro Uchida | Japan |
| 1949 | Ultrasonics' published | Benson Carlin | USA |
| 1949 | Internationaler Kongress „Ultraschall in der Medizin“ (Ultrasound in Medicine) in Erlangen, Germany. The chairman of the meeting was a prophet as he summarized at the end: we can expect that ultrasound will find its way into the medical diagnosis in the near future in a larger scale | Germany | |
| 1950 | Built a pulse-echo electronic scanner and recorded first cross-sectional US image using a 35mm camera | Douglass Howry | USA |
| 1951 | Built scanners for multiposition (compound) scanning (published in 1952, B-29 version in 1954) | Douglass Howry, Roderick Bliss, Gerald Posakony |
USA |
| 1951 | Developed A-mode machine | Kikuchi | Japan |
| 1951 | Earliest US image of breast tumors produced in the living subject | John Wild and John Reid | USA |
| 1951 | Began to apply A-mode US to detect gall stones and breast cancers in Japan | Wagai | Japan |
| 1951 | Earliest handheld B-mode contact scanners for clinical use | John Wild and John Reid | USA |
| 1952 | Conference at the University of Illinois (1955, 1962) | William Fry | USA |
| 1952 | Reported intracerebral hematoma and brain tumors using 2 MHz flaw detection equipment | Tanaka, Wagai | Japan |
| 1952 | Reported abdominal mass using 2 MHz flaw detection equipment | Douglas Howry | USA |
| 1952 | AIUM officially established | AIUM | USA |
| 1953 | Launched clinical echocardiography using the pulse-echo technique. | lnge Edler, Hellmuth Hertz | Sweden |
| 1954 | Their first echocardiogram with M-mode recording at 35 mm photographic film | lnge Edler, Hellmuth Hertz | Sweden |
| 1955 | Published spectacular cross‐sectional images of the limbs and neck | Douglas Howry, Joseph Holmes | USA |
| 1955 | Conference at the University of Illinois; the first diagnostic paper on “Echographic Tissue Diagnosis” was given | John Wild, John Reid | USA |
| 1955 | Smaller and better transducers started to be made using new piezoceramic materials such as barium titanate and lead zirconate-titanate. | ||
| 1955 | Applied Doppler ultrasound to cardiovascular investigation (published in 1956) | Shigeo Satomura, Yasuharu Nimura | Japan |
| 1956 | Use of ultrasound in orbit | Henry Mundt, William Hughes, Folke Jansson |
USA (HM, WH), Sweden (FJ) |
| 1956 | Demonstrated evidence of intracranial tumor or hemorrhage from shift in the midline echo (1953) and published (1956) | Lars Leksell, Douglas Gordon | Sweden |
| 1956-1957 | Distinguish between ascites, ovarian cysts. and fibroid tumors on the basis of their echo patterns A-mode equipment for measuring fetal biparietal diameter. Introduction of the full bladder technique for scanning of the uterine contents | Ian Donald | UK |
| 1957 | Localization of foreign bodies in the eye | Arvo Oksala | Finland |
| 1957 | lnterscience Research Institute, a not-for-profit research institute located in Champaign, Ill., was founded | William J. Fry, Francis J. Fry, Reginald C. Eggleton. |
USA |
| 1958 | First International Congress on Bio-Medical Engineering held in the uncompleted UNESCO building in Paris | Ormerod (Chairman), Gordon (Vice-Chairman) |
France |
| 1958 | A seminal paper on the “Investigation of abdominal masses by pulsed ultrasound” published | Ian Donald, Tom Brown | UK |
| 1958 | The first compound B-mode contact scanner patented, which did not need a water bath | Tom Brown | UK |
| 1958 | US diagnosis began in China with the establishment of the Ultrasonic Medical Research Group at the Sixth People’s Hospital in Shanghai. The group was led by Shih An. | Shihn An | China |
| 1958 | Doppler instruments were introduced into medicine | ||
| 1959 | Second International Congress on Bio-Medical Engineering held in Paris | France | |
| 1959 | The first National Ultrasound Conference was convened in Wuhan, China | China | |
| 1959 | Ultrasonic Research Section of the National (formerly Commonwealth) Acoustic Laboratory was formed in Sydney | George Kossoff | Australia |
| 1959 | Polaroid film was available | ||
| 1960 | Aloka produced their first commercial medical A-scanner, the SSD-2 | Japan | |
| 1961 | The Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine (JSUM) was formed and the first meeting was held at Juntendo University in Tokyo on May 10, 1961. Toshio Wagai was elected as the President | Japan | |
| 1962 | Mark I scanner (called in publications the CAL [Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratory] Echoscope), a compound water bath scanner completed | Australia | |
| 1962 | The medical physicist Peter Wells developed his version of the multi-joint articulated arm scanner based on Diasonograph electronics and put it to clinical use in Bristol, England in 1962. | Peter Wells | UK |
| 1962 | The first meeting on medical and biological ultrasound was organised and the proceedings were published in 1965 | William J. Fry | USA |
| 1963 | Ekoline 20, an A-mode and B-mode instrument for echoencephalography, was introduced by Smith Kline-Precision | ||
| 1964 | Physionics marketed three-jointed articulated-arm handheld scanner | ||
| 1964 | The Societas Internationalis pro Diagnostica Ultrasonica in Ophthalmologia (SIDUO) was formed and its first international symposium was held in East Berlin | Germany | |
| 1965 | The First International Conference on Diagnostic Ultrasound was organised and held with the sponsorship of the University of Pittsburgh. The proceedings of this meeting were published by Plenum Press in 1966. | USA | |
| 1965 | The first commercial real-time scanner, the Vidoson, was developed by Richard Soldner and manufactured by Siemens Medical Systems of Germany | Germany | |
| 1966 | The second SIDUO meeting was held in Brno, Czechoslovakia. Denis White encouraged the Executive of SIDUO to open its membership to every aspect of diagnostic ultrasound | Denis White | Czechoslovakia |
| 1968 | Publication on a phased-array transducer for two-dimensional imaging | Jan C. Somer | |
| 1969 | The third meeting of SIDUO was renamed 'Ultrasound 1969: 1st World Congress on Ultrasonic Diagnostics in Medicine Vienna, June 2 including meetings of SIDUO III and AIUM' | Austria | |
| 1969 | The British Medical Ultrasonics Group which was sponsored by the British Institute of Radiology, was formed in December 1969 (Later became the British Ultrasound Society in 1977) | UK | |
| 1969 | Mark II scanner introduced | Australia | |
| 1969 | The concept of grey scale echography was introduced and implemented it in the examination of the breast and of the pregnant uterus | George Kossoff | Australia |
| 1969 | The introduction of pulsed Doppler | Donald Baker, Peter Wells, Pierre Peronneau |
USA (DB), UK (PW), France (PP) |
| 1969 | The American Society of Ultrasound Technical Specialists (ASUTS) was formed under the aegis of the AIUM (In 1980 changed its name to the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (SDMS) in order to be more inclusive | USA | |
| 1969 | The Swiss formed the Swiss Society for Diagnostic Ultrasound at the conclusion of the Vienna Congress | Switzerland | |
| 1970 | The Australian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (ASUM) was established in March 1970 and held their first scientific meeting in August 1971 | Australia | |
| 1970 | Because Europe was still divided by the Cold War, Poland, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia had organized the Ultrasound in Biology and Medicine society (UBIOMED) in 1970 | Europe | |
| 1971 | Publication on linear array real-time scanning | Nicolaas Bom | Netherland |
| 1971 | East German formed their national ultrasound society (19711120) | Germany | |
| 1971 | The proceedings of the 1969 Vienna Congress, entitled ULTRASONO GRAPHIA MEDICA, were published in 1971 by Verlag der Wiener Medizinischen Akademie, with K. Ossoinig and J. Bock as editors | ||
| 1972 | Publication on the use of gray scale | ||
| 1972 | Hungarians formed their natioan society (Hungarian Biophysical Society, 19720110) | Hungary | |
| 1972 | European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (EFSUMB) was founded in Basel, Swizerland with the delegates of 13 European societies (19720211) | EFSUMB | |
| 1972 | The section on Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology was organised in the Academy of Sciences of USSR by Profs. L. R. Gavrilov, A. P. Sarvazyan and V. B. Akonian | USSR | |
| 1973 | Rohe and Unirad introduced the first commercial analog scan converters with gray scale in the U.S. | ||
| 1973 | The Rotterdam Congress held in 1973 was advertised as the Second World Congress on Diagnostic Ultrasound. It did not include the biannual meeting of SIDUO. | Netherland | |
| 1973 | WFUMB was officially formed at the General Assembly by the association of five societies ‐ AIUM, JSUM, EFSUMB, SIDUO and ASUM. The first General Assembly elected Dr. G. Baum as President and approved the Constitution and accepted Pergamon Press as publisher for its journal, Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology. | WFUMB | |
| 1973 | The first issue of UMB was published (September) | UMB | |
| 1974 | The proceedings of the Rotterdam meeting “Ultrasonics in Medicine”, Ed. M. de Vlieger, D. White and V. Mc Ready were published by Excerpta Medica, Amsterdam, in 1974. | Netherland | |
| 1974 | The American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (ARDMS) was formed | USA | |
| 1974 | Japanese Journal of Medical Ultrasonics was published as the official journal of JSUM | Japan | |
| 1974 | A prototype of Octoson completed by UI | Australia | |
| 1976 | A commercial model of the Octoson was available in 1976, and was used for scanning the breast, as well as the heart, abdomen, testes, and other areas. | Australia | |
| 1976 | The first WFUMB Congress was held in San Francisco in 1976 (WFUMB'76), hosted by AIUM and with the mutual cooperation of AIUM (21st), EFSUMB, JSUM, ASUM, SIDUO (6th) and others | WFUMB | |
| 1979 | European Committee for Ultrasound Radiation Safety was fromed by EFSUMB | EFSUMB | |
| 1979 | The second WFUMB Congress was held in Miyazaki (also named the 4th World Congress | WFUMB | |
| 1980 | The American Society of Ultrasound Technical Specialists (ASUTS) changed its name to the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers (SDMS) | USA | |
| 1982 | The third WFUMB Congress (WFUMB-82) was held in Brighton hosted by British Medical Ultrasound Society | WFUMB | |
| 1982 | The First WFUMB Seminar on Safety and Standardization of Ultrasound in Obstetrics was held for three days immediately after WFUMB-82 | WFUMB | |
| 1983 | The AIUM/NEMA standard was developed and accepted | AIUM | |
| 1983 | FLAUS was formed | FLAUS | |
| 1985 | The fourth WFUMB Congress (WFUMB-85) was held in Sydney hosted by ASUM combined with the 1st Congress of World Federation of Sonographers and the 1st WFUMB Safety and Standardization Symposium | WFUMB | |
| 1985 | The ASUM changed its name to the "Australasian Society", which was inclusive of Australia and New Zealand | ASUM | |
| 1986 | LAFSUMB was established | ||
| 1986 | MASU was founded in April 1986 and Hassen Gharbi was the first President and founder | Hassen Gharbi | |
| 1987 | First AFSUMB was held in Tokyo | AFSUMB | |
| 1988 | The first issue of WFUMB NEWS was published | WFUMB | |
| 1988 | The Asian and the Latin Federations joined WFUMB | AFSUMB | |
| 1988 | WFUMB-88 (5th) was held in Washington DC hosted by AIUM. The History and Archives Committee had Historical Symposium on Diagnostic Ultrasound and Kodak Health Sciences published the proceedings of this meeting entitled “Medical Diagnostic Ultrasound: A Retrospective on its 40th Anniversary”. The 2nd Congress of World Federation of Sonographers and the 2nd WFUMB Safety and Standardization Symposium were also held | WFUMB | |
| 1989 | Kretztechnik of Austria began to market the first commercial 3-D scanner, the Combison 330 | Austria | |
| 1991 | WFUMB-91 (6th) was held in Copenhagen, Denmark | EFSUMB | |
| 1992 | New AIUM/NEMA standard was developed | AIUM | |
| 1992 | Peter Wells appointed as UMB editor (served until 2006) | UMB | |
| 1994 | WFUMB-94 (7th) was held in Sapporo, Japan, in conjunction with the 4th Congress of World Federation of Sonographers | WFUMB | |
| 1996 | At a WHO sponsored meeting held in Philadelphia in 1996, a joint Scientific Group prepared a report on Training in Diagnostic Ultrasonography – Essentials, Principles and Standards | WHO | |
| 1997 | WFUMB-97 (8th) was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina | WFUMB | |
| 1997 | WFUMB website established | WFUMB | |
| 2000 | WFUMB-2000 (9th) was held in Florence, Italy (May 6~10). The Florence Congress was the last Congress to be co‐shared with the Congress of Sonographers | WFUMB/EFSUMB | |
| 2000 | The WFUMB educational activities, the “African and Asian projects”, were launched | WFUMB | |
| 2002 | The first issue of ECHOES was published as a continuum od WFUMB Newsletter | WFUMB | |
| 2002 | The first WFUMB Basic Course on Ultrasonography was held in Moshi, Tanzania (February 4-8) and the first WFUMB Training for the Trainers Ultrasound Workshop was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh (June 6-8) | WFUMB | |
| 2003 | WFUMB-2003 (10th) was held in Montreal, Canada (June 1~4). A CD-ROM on “History of Medical Ultrasound” has been compiled under the supervision of the committee, and the CD-ROM was given to each of the participants of the congress. WFUMB Honorary Life Members were bestowed upon the previous WFUMB Presidents Dr. H. Thompson, Dr. G. Koss off, Dr. F. Weill and Dr. B. Goldberg. | WFUMB/AIUM | |
| 2003 | WFUMB Administrative Council Meeting (May 31) decided to establish WFUMB Centers of Excellences (COE) at certain places in developing countries of the world | WFUMB | |
| 2004 | The first WFUMB COE opened in Bangladesh in February. Dr. Kane Bala, Bangladesh Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine and Research is the primary link in this WFUMB initiative. The second WFUMB CEO was established in Kampala, Ugandaby a contract with the Uganda Society of Ultrasound (UGASON) and the first workshop was conducted on October 16-20 | WFUMB | |
| 2004 | WFUMB Training Courses were held at Manila (Phiippines), Freetown (Sierra Leon), and Beijing (China) | WFUMB | |
| 2005 | The first WFUMB Latin American Education Project Course was held in Lima, Peru (March 10-13) | WFUMB | |
| 2005 | The third WFUMB CEO was established in Caracas, Venezuela, and the first workshop was held (June 22-25) in Guayana | WFUMB | |
| 2005 | A WFUMB-sponsored book entitled “Manual of Diagnostic Ultrasound in Infectious Tropical Diseases” was published (edited by Dr. Lutz H. and Dr. Gharbi H) | WFUMB | |
| 2006 | WFUMB-2006 (11th) was held in Seoul, Korea (May 28~ June 1) | WFUMB/AFSUMB | |
| 2006 | WFUMB Training Course was held in Jakarta, Indonesia (January 27-29) | WFUMB | |
| 2006 | Dr. Wells P.N.T., the Editor-in-Chief of Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology stepped down from this position and WFUMB Honorary Life Member was bestowed upon him. Dr. Christy K. Holland was appointed as the new Editor-in-Chief. | WFUMB | |
| 2007 | A new WFUMB COE was established in Romania and the inaugural workshop was held in Timisoara (June 1). | WFUMB | |
| 2007 | At the meeting with the AIUM held in 2007 in New York it was agreed that, commencing in 2009, the AIUM office would be responsible for the provision of secretarial services to WFUMB and that the office would be co‐located with the AIUM in Washington, DC. | WFUMB | |
| 2007 | Inaugural workshop of the Romanian CEO in Craiova | WFUMB | |
| 2007 | The WFUMB Safety Committee work on the Safe Use of Ultrasound Contrast Agents is completed and a document is published in UMB | WFUMB | |
| 2007 | WFUMB Executive Bureau with AFSUMB Congress, Bangkok in November 2007 | WFUMB | |
| 2008 | WFUMB Training Course was held in Agra, India (February 15-17) | WFUMB | |
| 2008 | A joint meeting of WFUMB Council and Board members of ISR in Marrakech in June. | WFUMB | |
| 2008 | WFUMB Training Course was held s were held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (July 24-26) | WFUMB | |
| 2009 | WFUMB-2009 (12th) was held in Sydney, Australia (August 30~September 3) | WFUMB/ASUM | |
| 2009 | The interval between WFUMB Congresses and the term of WFUMB officers were reduced from 3 years to 2 years | WFUMB | |
| 2010 | Three courses of African education porject were held in Lusaka-Zambia (8-12 February), Tripoli-Libya (25-27 June), and Kigali-Rwanda (12-16 December) | WFUMB | |
| 2011 | WFUMB-2011 (13th) was held in Vienna, Austria in conjunction with the 23rd Congress of EFSUMB (August 26~29) | WFUMB/EFSUMB | |
| 2011 | WFUMB Training Course was held in Bangkok, Thailand (16-18 February) | WFUMB/AFSUMB | |
| 2013 | WFUMB-2013 (14th) was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil (May 2~5) | WFUMB/FLAUS | |
| 2015 | WFUMB-2015 (15th) was held in Orlando, USA (March 21~25) | WFUMB/AIUM | |
| 2017 | WFUMB-2017 (16th) was held in Taipei, Taiwan (October 13~17) | WFUMB/AFSUM |
WFUMB Former President, Seung Hyup Kim has kindly formed a full History in the download and presentations below: