Ten years of the Echocardiographic Society of Serbia: local achievements with European flavour

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, in the former Yugoslavia, there were no organized educational and scientific activities in the field of echocardiography. Existing Working group of Echocardiography of the national cardiology society has been inactive for years.The new echo organization was born in April 2001, on the wings of enthusiasm of few cardiologists, who felt that the time for change has come. The first name, Yugoslav Echocardiographic Society (YUECHO), was changed in December 2006 into current name, Echocardiographic Society of Serbia (ECHOS) ( Figure 1 ). Figure 1 Official logo of the Echocardiographic Society of Serbia.The goal was to set up local standards of echocardiographic examination, to run educational programmes, to support research related to echocardiography and to establish international collaboration and join international echo organizations and scientific projects.Till now, ECHOS has organized 12 basic echocardiographic courses. Each course consisted of 2 weeks of intensive theoretical state-of-the-art overview of echocardiographic techniques and clinical applications, followed by 8 weeks of practical, hands-on training in one of the seven referent training centres throughout the country. Lecturers and trainers …