Happy 10th Birthday EMUGs!

From a group of passionate POCUS pioneers gathering at a Sydney pub in 2017, to a thriving community of clinicians across Australia & Aotearoa New Zealand championing point-of-care ultrasound in acute care...it has been a journey!

EMUGs was born from a simple idea: to connect, share, and improve patient care through POCUS. A grassroots movement with a big heart, built by volunteers and fuelled by collaboration, education, and community spirit.

This week we celebrate:

•  10 years of advocating for POCUS in acute care.

•  Hundreds of workshops, meetings, and initiatives.

• A growing network of passionate clinicians driving better outcomes.

• And most importantly, YOU! The volunteers, instructors and supporters who comprise the EMUGs community.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Here’s to the next 10 years of learning, leading, and supporting each other to make POCUS accessible, effective, and embedded in everyday practice.

EMUGs Central Council at our May meeting in Melbourne

Reflections from EMUGs Co-Founder Scott Flannagan:

Wow, 10yrs. What an accomplishment! An initiative that has grown and far out exceeded any of my previous expectations. My first memories of this activist/interest group came from my introductions to Brian O’Connell and Chris Partyka through a mutual mentor of ours in the name of Justin Bowra. It seemed that Brian, Chris and myself had similar interests, frustrations and a desire to improve the systematic approach to Point of Care Ultrasound education and resourcing across Australia. Each of us had a similarity in experience of how we educated ourselves in this now essential tool of the modern acute care clinician. I remember having agreeable conversations (possibly the first and only) over a beer or 2 at random inner-city pubs around the need to shift the education of POCUS from a self-directed, self taught skill of the uber-motivated to a national college mandated/government endorsed skill available to every Emergency Department across, well at that time, NSW as we never would have dared to dream it could be bigger.   Chris and Brian had already set out on the foundations of an ultrasound interest group and the addition of myself to this group really added balance to both the energy and decision-making that would ensue over the next couple of years. The three of us worked together like a version of the 3 stooges, Brian’s Curly complementing Chris’ and my Larry and Mo. There were many animated discussions, often over what was then google hangout video calls, in those early days around the name of the organisation, the frequency of meetings, the content in those meetings and location.   One thing that remain clear throughout was our unified mission to lead a grass roots initiative to drive enthusiasm, interest and debate ultimately leading to a standardization and centralizing of education, governance and acceptance at the highest levels.    

We all agreed that the right way forward would be to run 4 meetings per year, with half of the time allotted to discussion, debate, generation and engagement of other like-minded individuals followed by a high-yield, entertaining and educational forum. Chris was the whizz and brains behind the early website design and curation, a masterful stroke of genius creating the initial logo of EMUGs with the ocular ultrasound images as eyes of a person in a police mug shot. Brian was the absolute engine behind the project, never seeming to slow down, impassioned and driven to build upon what we were creating, often 2 steps ahead of where Chris and I though we were or should be. The respect, triangulation and equal representation each of us afforded to each other in the early days led to the better of ideas being agreed upon and pursued.  

It is because of these hangout meetings that I learned of the importance of a catchy acronym to gain instant traction in the discussion space, thus phrases like EMUGs, STORM, SEED, CLUb, DEUS and UTEC were born. I also became aware of the importance of leveraging relationships to assist in your desire to reach goals, having people with reputation preceding themselves like Justin Bowra, Adrian Goudie, Jon Mackenize, Sally McCarthy and Shamus Shepard really stir up the interest and attendance at those early events. One particular meeting, I believe it was the 4th meeting in early 2016, we managed to create quite a buzz engaging Matt and Mike of the Ultrasound Podcast to do a debate about the value of Cardiac Ultrasound over what was then, quite rudimentary video conferencing software.  This was so well attended that we had to have it at a larger venue then then routine quiet room of the side of a local Sydney pub, booking a proper conference venue at one of the hotel’s in the Olympic Village. It was a wild success and certainly bumped the awareness of EMUGs as an up and coming organization into over-drive, resulting in record-breaking attendences meeting after meeting for the majority of 2016-17. 

Over the next few years, committees were formed, EMUG-endorsed statements and polices were crafted, National, state and district organizations were lobbied and geninue change began to happen… It was around this time, the formalities of an official non for profit organization were needed. EMUGs had grown bigger then ever, reaching into the regions, other states, NZ… Several new groups were formed. A central council created to oversee the communal collaboration across these groups, ensuring a common mission remained and the establishment of an annual meeting was developed. Finances needed to be officially managed, website and marketing initiatives needed to be updated and staff needed to be hired. The future and sustainability of this now internationally-recognized organization continuing to carry the banner of EMUGs was safely and so appropriately left in the hands of people like Stacey Davidson, Romy Blecher and Cian Sullivan.    

These days, It brings me great joy to hear of EMUGs influencing the ACEM-subcommittee on ultrasound, advocating and producing educational content for both ACEM but also state organizations, assisting with policy drafts, content creation at local department levels. I am in awe each time I attend one of the widely recognized and highly attended annual meetings remembering how 10yrs ago, this started upstairs at the Woolloomooloo Hotel with an attendance of maybe 35, a laptop, a projector and well described mission.   

From the EMUGs Archives... Early EMUGs Meeting Posters...