Our Mission
Improve management of all women with endometriosis by teaching imaging professionals the skills to include an assessment for deep infiltrating endometriosis in every routine gynaecological ultrasound.
Dr Sofie Piessens
MD, FRANZCOG, DDU, COGU
Whether witchcraft was in her family generation ago, Sofie does not know, but ever since women were allowed to study medicine, the women in Sofie’s family have. With her grandmother and mother leading by example, Sofie knew from a very early age that that was the path she wanted to take as well. She studied medicine in Belgium and specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology. During her last year of training Sofie did an ultrasound rotation which really sparked her interest. At the end of her training she followed her husband to Australia where she was lucky enough to be accepted in the subspecialty program for O&G ultrasound which she completed at Monash Medical Centre and the Royal Women’s hospital. In 2009 Sofie travelled as the first Australian specialist to Brazil to learn the technique to diagnose deep infiltrating endometriosis with transvaginal ultrasound. It was an eye-opening experience as it represented a huge leap forward in gynaecological ultrasound diagnosis and a game changer in the management of women with this debilitating disease allowing better preoperative triaging, less repetitive surgery and better outcomes. Sofie feels strongly that endometriosis assessment should be part of the routine gynaecological ultrasound assessment. She is a leader in teaching the wider imaging community to diagnose deep infiltrating endometriosis through national and international conferences, hands on workshops and online tutorials. She is the imaging team leader in the set up of the national endometriosis data base, the first major research project funded by the national action plan on endometriosis. Over the 15 years of practice as a subspecialist, Sofie has been a member of the COGU subspecialty committee of the College and she was the president of the Australian Association for Obstetrical and Gynaecological Ultrasound for 6 years. She has held public appointments at the Royal Women’s Hospital and at Monash Health. She is a member of the medical advisory committee of Endometriosis Australia. When not working Sofie likes being creative and inventive. She loves learning new things. Living away from her family has taught her the importance of family and and although after 20 years she calls Australia home, during holidays Sofie still loves travelling back to Belgium with her husband and 2 sons to catch up with her mum and dad, 4 siblings and 15 nieces and nephews.
Dr Andrew Edwards
MBBS, DDU, MD, FRANZCOG, COGU
Andrew lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is an adjunct senior lecturer at the Hudson Institute, Monash University. He also works in the Fetal Diagnostic Service at Peninsula Health, the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Ultrasound service at Eastern Health, and in private practice.
Andrew is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with subspecialist Certification in Obstetric and Gynaecological Ultrasound (COGU) awarded by RANZCOG. Early in his career, Andrew developed an interest in fetal diagnosis, interventions, and therapies, and in 2005 he became the founding Director of the Victorian Fetal Therapy Service, specialising in fetal and in utero interventions. Andrew performed the first fetoscopic laser ablation treatment of Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome in Victoria in 2006. In his research capacity, Andrew developed a collaboration with paediatric cardiologists and neonatologists from Melbourne and Germany, looking at the feasibility of cardiac catheterisation in the fetus. This group has developed significant novel techniques and has published multiple papers. Presenting this work, Andrew has won 3 ‘best research’ awards at local and international conferences, including the prestigious Best Abstract Award at the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynaecology World Congress in Copenhagen. Andrew has authored over 40 research papers in the medical literature and, in 2016, was awarded a Doctor of Medicine higher degree by Monash University for his thesis titled ‘Fetal Therapy’. He has also been involved in several large multicentre gynaecological research projects including the Ovarian Health Study and the Prevention of Endometrial Cancer with Metformin trial. He participates in the Women’s Health lecture program for 4th year medical students and is an examiner in the Monash University Medicine Program. Andrew has been active at a College level, previously on the COGU committee and Chair of the COGU Oral Examination Committee.
In recent times Andrew has turned his attention towards the ultrasound diagnosis of endometriosis. The ability of advanced pelvic ultrasound techniques in detecting endometriosis is proven, but its implementation into the community is a huge challenge. After developing his own skills in this area, Andrew has become involved in education of sonographers and GPs with the aim of making ultrasound diagnosis of endometriosis widely available and appropriately utilised in the general community.
Jing Fang, Sonographer
LLB, BBiomedSc, MMedRad
Jing completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science/Bachelor of Laws before pursuing a Master’s degree in medical ultrasound at Monash University. Upon completing her ultrasound training at IMED, Jing joined Monash Health and later took on the ultrasound supervisor role at Moorabbin Hospital, where she embarked on further training in gynaecological ultrasound. Under the mentorship of Dr Sofie Piessens, she has gained a keen interest in the sonographic diagnosis of deep infiltrating endometriosis.
In 2017, Jing joined Dr Sofie Piessens and her team on a trip to China to provide teaching and training on the topic of sonographic diagnosis of endometriosis to sonologists/doctors in Beijing Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital and Wuhan University Renmin Hospital. In 2018, Jing and Dr Sofie Piessens published “A step-by-step guide to sonographic evaluation of deep infiltrating endometriosis”, the paper was recognized as one of the top downloaded articles in Sonography in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Apart from contributing to conferences and seminars, Jing also enjoys her responsibility as a mentor for breast and gynaecology ultrasound fellowship program at Monash Health. She believes that empowering sonographers with more knowledge and skills is paramount in improving diagnostic confidence and providing optimal patient care.
Rebecca Long, Sonographer
BSc, DMU (Vascular), GradDipMedUS, AMS
Rebecca completed her Bachelor of Science at Monash University in 1997 and began her career in healthcare in 1998 at Peninsula Vascular Diagnostics in Frankston. There she was first introduced to the profession of Sonography and she began her ultrasound training in Vascular Ultrasound completing a DMU (Vascular) in 2000. Education was an integral part of life at PVD and Rebecca ran the preceptorship program there for 18 months. She realised she quite enjoyed teaching people.
In 2002 Rebecca moved to Monash Medical Centre Clayton (Monash Health) to undertake her general ultrasound training, although there was nothing general about her training at all. Monash Health was (and is) an exceptional learning environment, with multiple tertiary level specialities. It was there she met Sofie, Andrew and Jing. Rebecca finished her Graduate Diploma in Medical Ultrasound through Monash University in 2003.
In 2008 Rebecca joined Sofie and Andrew at the newly opened City Imaging, Ultrasound for Women and ever since Rebecca has shared her working life between Public Health at Monash Health and Private Practice at City Imaging/Peninsula Imaging and more recently Imaging Associates.
Rebecca first heard about using ultrasound to assess for deep endometriosis at WFUMB in 2009. Under the guidance of Sofie she learnt the technique. Since 2012 Rebecca has presented at local and national conferences and she is regularly involved in the training of both Sonographers and Doctors.
Rebecca believes that the key to improving patient outcomes is by improving the skills of those that look after them, and that is why she is involved with Endosonography101.
Prof Luk Rombauts
MD, PhD, FRANZCOG, CREI
Luk is the Group Medical Director of Monash IVF Group. He is the President of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, the President of the World Endometriosis Society and a Trustee of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation. He is Adjunct Clinical Professor in the Department of O&G at Monash University and Head of the Reproductive Medicine Clinic at Monash Health.
Dr Valeria Lanzarone
MBBS, FRANZCOG, DDU, COGU
Valeria is an Obstetrician Gynaecologist with subspecialist certification in Obstetric and Gynaecological Ultrasound.
She divides her time between her current role as the Director of the Perinatal Ultrasound Department at Nepean Hospital and as a partner in Ultrasound for Women Penrith and Hawkesbury practices.
She has served as Director of Women’s Health at Nepean Hospital, Deputy Chair of Obstetric and Gynaecological Ultrasound Subspecialty for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrician Gynaecologists, and Chair of the Australian Association of Obstetric and Gynaecological Ultrasound. She has been an invited speaker at national and international meetings on Obstetric and Gynaecological ultrasound.
Her areas of expertise include fetal anomaly scanning, prenatal diagnosis, ultrasound guided procedures and gynaecological scanning, with special interests in the role of ultrasound in deep infiltrative endometriosis. She has worked and shared her expertise in units across Sydney and is passionate about educating medical and sonographic colleagues of the potential of pelvic scanning in the detection of endometriosis.
Video Lectures
With step by step guidance
Useful resources
Journal articles, guidelines, useful websites
101 ‘live’ video cases
To help train your eye
