POCUS academy and AURUS

The AURUS (Association des Urgentistes et Réanimateurs intéréssés par l’UltraSonographie) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2008 to promote education in the field of ultrasonography in acute care medicine. 
As the legitimacy of ultrasonography is no longer in question, the AURUS will be dissolved at the end of the year. Its activity has been taken over by the POCUS academy.
The AURUS quality label for practical courses developed in recent years will remain under this name. It is recognized by the Swiss Society of Ultrasonography in Medicine. 

AURUS founding members

Damien Tagan

Damien is Head of the Critical Care Department at the Riviera-Chablais Hospital and Privat dozent at the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Biology and Medicine, in Switzerland. He is a specialist in internal, critical care and emergency medicine. He is a founding member of the AURUS and has provided ultrasound training to hundreds of clinicians through online and live courses for more than 15 years. He is the founder of the POCUS academy.

Alain Broccard

Alain is a co-founder of the AURUS and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School in the USA. He is a specialist in critical care, pulmonary and internal medicine. He is an internationally respected physician and scientist who has been teaching and using point-of-care ultrasonography in critical care for many years. 

Grégoire Christen

Grégoire is Chief Physician in the Riviera-Chablais Hospital’s Critical Care Department. He is a specialist in internal medicine, critical care medicine and point-of-care ultrasonography. He is a co-founder of the AURUS and the association’s treasurer.

Faculties

Olivier Grosgurin

Olivier is a Priva tdozent and attending physician at Geneva University Hospitals. He is a specialist in internal medicine and emergency medicine. As a POCUS specialist, he has been teaching focused ultrasonography with the AURUS for many years and is responsible for the teaching and use of POCUS in his institution. He is also expanding his activities in the field of clinical POCUS research.

Vincent Ribordy

Vincent is the Head of the Emergency Department at the Hôpital Fribourgeois and a Professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He is a specialist in internal medicine, intensive medicine, emergency medicine and POCUS ultrasonography. Since the founding of the AURUS, he has been one of the association’s most active tutors and has contributed to the promotion of focused ultrasonography across Switzerland.

Kouchiar Azarnoush

Kouchiar is the Chief Physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Hôpital Fribourgeois in Switzerland. He has a diploma in emergency medicine and in POCUS and abdominal ultrasonography from the University of Paris V Descartes. As an emergency and internal physician, he promotes the use of ultrasonography daily. He also has a degree in pedagogy from the University of Geneva and has been organising practical ultrasonography courses for many years.

Tania Bolognini

Tania is an Attending Physician at the Riviera-Chablais Hospital’s Internal Medicine Department. She is a specialist in internal medicine, emergency medicine and point-of-care ultrasonography. 

Philippe Dussoix

Philippe is Head of the Hôpital de la Tour’s Emergency Department, the largest private medical training centre in French-speaking Switzerland. He has worked as an emergency physician for 20 years and has been integrating clinical ultrasound into his practice for many years. Convinced of ultrasound’s usefulness as an extension of clinical examinations, he became a POCUS tutor and now helps to develop ultrasound training courses for emergency physicians.

Matteo Monti

Matteo is an Attending Physician at Lausanne University Hospital and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Biology and Medicine. He is a specialist in internal medicine and medical education, with many published articles and a book on procedural skills in internal medicine. He is the Coordinator for undergraduate and postgraduate courses teaching POCUS in Lausanne and is also active in the field of clinical POCUS research.

Marco Rusca

Marco is an Attending Physician in Lausanne University Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, where he is in charge of coordinating, implementing and training transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography in its ICU. He obtained a French university DIU in critical care echocardiography in 2008 and a European Diploma in Advanced Critical Care Echocardiography (EDEC) in 2017. He is a course director for the Swiss Society of Ultrasonography in Medicine. 

Huy Tran-Minh

Huy is an Emergency Physician who has worked in hospital emergency rooms, helicopter medical teams and pre-hospital emergency care in the Paris metropolitan area for 15 years, and he has practised POCUS in a variety of clinical settings. Convinced of the tremendous advantages of using ultrasound in daily medical practice, he has completed diplomas in vascular, paediatric, abdominal, urology and thyroid ultrasonography. In Fribourg, he is an AURUS instructor and responsible for the implementation of POCUS in the Hôpital Fribourgeois’ Emergency Department.

Lorenzo Gavino

Lorenzo is currently a Resident in anaesthesiology at Lausanne University Hospital. He is a specialist in internal medicine, anesthesiology, intensive care medicine and pre-hospital emergency medicine. He is a certified SSUM supervisor for basic heart and lung ultrasonography and an AURUS tutor in advanced echocardiography.

Zied Ltaeif

Zied is an Attending Physician in Lausanne University Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit wheree he is a member of the haemodynamic and cardiovascular group. In 2016, he obtained an inter-university diploma in Ultrasonographic Techniques in Intensive Care from the University of Lorraine and Loire, in France.
In 2020, he was certified as a POCUS tutor in the basics of emergency, transthoracic and transoesophageal cardiac ultrasonography, thoracic ultrasonography and ultrasonography in neuro-resuscitation.

Guillaume Carrel

Guillaume is an Attending Physician in Fribourg Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. He is a specialist in internal and critical care medicine. He holds a certification in transthoracic echocardiography and pleuropulmonary ultrasonography.

Malik Benmachiche

Malik is a specialist in general internal medicine and intensive care medicine. He is an Attending Physician in Lausanne University Hospital’s Internal Medicine Service, where he actively participates in implementing POCUS. He is a certified SSUM teacher for POCUS on the topics of basics in emergency echography, focused echocardiography, focused thoracic echography and vascular punctures.

Yannick Lebret

Yannick was an emergency physician in France’s Army Health Service. He holds a french university diploma in echography and teaches POCUS to emergency doctors and general practitioners. He was formerly a trainer for WINFOCUS France, co-founded the ‘Echo-urgences’ blog", and since 2019 he has been working at the Hôpital de La Tour’s Emergency Department, in Geneva. He is the author of the ‘Guide to Ultrasound in Primary Care’.   

Virginie Moulin

Virginie is Senior Physician in Lausanne University Hospital’s Internal Medicine Department. She is a specialist in internal medicine and POCUS ultrasonography (emergency and thoracic ultrasound). She teaches and implements basic ultrasound in internal medicine. As Lausanne University Hospital’s referent on venous access within the Internal Medicine Department, Virginie conducts various research projects on this topic.

OUR FRIENDS

Cercle des Echographistes d'Urgence et de Réanimation Francophones (CEURF)
Founded by Pr Daniel Lichtenstein (Hôpital Ambroise Paré, AP-HP, Paris).
www.ceurf.net

Echo-urgences
Yanick Lebret (Hôpital de la Tour à Genève) and coll.
www.echo-urgences.com

COLLABORATORS IN THE REALISATION OF THE WEBSITE

Antoine Wallef – webmaster – WGR society (https://wgr.ch)

Darren hart – translation assistance (https://publish-or-perish.ch/)

Dominica Warburton – voice over artist (https:// dominicawarburton.co.uk/)

Sarah Parlier – illustrations – free lance