The METIS project for generalist ultrasonography.

Reorganization of the community healthcare system and the growing presence of group practices in the field of general medicine have increased the demands placed on primary-care medicine, in terms of the skills required and the level of responsibility. Satisfying the need for rapid, effective primary-care solutions to the health problems of citizens is easier thanks to technological and medical advances that provide high level equipment at costs within the reach of general practitioners (GPs). In the near future, trained GPs equipped with appropriate diagnostic scanners will be able to handle up to 40% of the requests of ultrasound examinations of each primary-care group (each PCG includes approximately 15,000-20,000 citizens). The Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Federazione Italiana dei Medici di Medicina Generale - FIMMG) and its Scientific Society, METIS, have organized national courses for those GPs who wish to become generalist ultrasonographers, in a joint effort with the two most important Italian scientific societies of imaging, the Italian Society of Ultrasonology in Medicine and Biology and the Italian Society of Medical Radiology.