In ultrasound education, there is often a lack of hands-on experience due to the limited availability of experienced tutors, patients, volunteers, and ultrasound machines. Simulators can substitute training with real humans to some extent, but they are not widely used, mainly because of their costs. Playing a computer game might be a way to add to the training opportunities in ultrasound education. An example for such a game is the SonoGame that has been developed as part of a medical imaging research project with the help of computer science students from the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany. 

At the beginning of the event DEGUM expert PD Dr. Dr. Milka Marinova, Department of Radiology at the Medical School & Hospital, University Bonn, Germany, reported on the use of HIFU on inoperable pancreatic cancer and about why the method reduces the tumor pain of patients as well as the size of the tumor significantly. 'The life quality of pancreatic cancer patients can be reduced significantly to massively through cancer pain', Marinova said. 'Whithin the frame of standardized screening we found out that an examination with HIFU in more than 80 % of the patients effectively and continuously reduces tumor pain.' Both the intensity and the experience of pain were greatly reduced.