More than 70,000 physicians worldwide, among them many from severely affected countries such as Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and the USA, have so far viewed the webinars, online events and courses provided free of charge by the Viennese med-tech company in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic on its e-learning and community platform 123sonography.com. “Pulmonary ultrasound, which can be used to detect COVID-19 pneumonia, plays an essential role in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients. The high number of users in just a few days shows the great need for knowledge in this sector,” explains Professor Dr. Thomas Binder, cardiologist of the Vienna General Hospital, head of the echo laboratory and founder of 123sonography, the world’s largest provider of ultrasound and echocardiography e-learning. 123sonography.com recently developed into a central communication platform, where physicians exchange information on a transnational level about COVID-19 related intensive care and respiratory therapy.
The need of medical staff for adequate and quickly available training in the field of pulmonary ultrasound of COVID-19 patients is enormous. Only very few have sufficient experience. In cooperation with the Medical University of Vienna and the Vienna Medical Association, 123sonography created an online video training program consisting of several online courses in a very short time already at the beginning of the pandemic. This program specifically teaches the handling and treatment of COVID-19 patients, such as the correct use of protective equipment, correct disinfection and the strategic logistics for infection prevention, which will be launched next week. “It’s a race against time. The urgency of the crisis requires fast action to support those who are on the front line and are themselves exposed to a high risk of infection,” says Thomas Binder. If the traditional path of academic exchange in the form of seminars and conferences is blocked, e-learning is the only way to quickly transfer teaching content from experts and new findings to health care professionals (HCP) in all countries of the world. The networking of medical personnel with each other is equally important in order to exchange experiences in intensive care and respiratory therapies and thus to be able to make a valuable contribution to the production of a future therapy and vaccination.
Dr. Baldasarre Ferro, an intensive care physician from Livorno, is one of the speakers of the webinar: “It is both frustrating and frightening for us that we do not fully understand and cannot explain why even young and healthy patients die or why the course of the disease may be mild in older patients with pre-existing conditions.”
123sonography online event for COVID-19 receives worldwide attention
After the pandemic increasingly exacerbated in several EU neighboring countries, 25,000 HCPs from 127 countries visited the online events of 123sonography on diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients. Intensive care physicians and experts from Italy, France, China, the USA and Austria reported on their experiences and answered the most critical of the more than 700 questions submitted by the audience. The event is one of the most watched online events in the medical field worldwide.
Together with further training videos on the topic, 123sonography reached 70,000 visitors. “It is our moral obligation to help our colleagues, who risk their lives every day, with all our resources and possibilities,” explains Thomas Binder.
About 123sonography
123sonography currently counts 450,000 health care professionals from 175 countries among its international users. Founded in 2009 by Dr. Thomas Binder and located in Vienna, the company offers various online ultrasound courses with international CME certification (AMA PRA-1) (https://www.123sonography.com/cme-credits). Since December 2019, following a management change and financial restructuring, the business has been jointly managed by Thomas Binder (LinkedIn) and Manuel Gusterer (LinkedIn). In the same year 2019, 123sonography acquired the US-American company SonoWorld from the Intelios Group, which is one of the major players in the education sector. Ultrasound diagnostics is currently one of the fastest growing markets for imaging techniques in medical technology.
The company’s vision is to make medical diagnostics of ultrasound and echocardiography easily and cost-effectively accessible via e-learning to physicians and medical personnel worldwide in the highest quality and professionalism. All 123sonography courses are certified according to AMA PRA Category 1 CME[2] CreditsTM. The study material consists of videos, interactive case studies, atlas, demos, quizzes and is accessible to all users. The courses can be taken at once or flexibly in different time frames. In addition, live events are held in various countries and cities around the world, for example in Dubai. Partnerships exist with the Medical University of Vienna, the Austrian Medical Association, Sono Skills, Universal Ultrasound Management and 3rd Rock Ultrasound.
Professor Dr. Thomas Binder
Professor Dr. Thomas Binder is the founder of 123sonography and a specialist for internal medicine and cardiology. He is the head of the echo laboratory of the 2nd Medical University Clinic Vienna, Cardiology. He completed his medical studies at the Medical University of Vienna in 1985. After numerous research stays in the USA, he completed his specialist training in internal medicine in 1992 and his specialist training in cardiology in 1994. In 2000, he was appointed professor at the Medical University of Vienna, where he was appointed head of the echo laboratory in the same year. Dr. Binder’s main research focus is in the field of imaging techniques in cardiology, and here especially on heart ultrasound (echocardiography). In his scientific capacity, he is the author of numerous articles in national and international journals and book contributions. He has served as Deputy Editor of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging and as Co-Editor of Medscape/Web MD. Dr. Binder is a member of numerous international professional societies. He is also a founding member and Secretary of the European Cardiology Section Foundation (ECSF) and Secretary of the European Board for Accreditation in Cardiology (EBAC) as well as the Cardiology Section of the Union Européenne des Médicins Spécialistes (UEMS). In 2018, together with colleagues from the Medical University of Vienna, he received the Austrian “Ars Docendi Award” for his blended learning program. (LinkedIn)
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Professor Dr. Thomas Binder
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