Ultrasound expertise to be bundled in central MHB Skills Lab

Neuruppin, 25 August 2025

The Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB) strengthens practice-oriented training with a move to bundle existing ultrasound expertise. The student-organized ultrasound skills lab, up to now assigned to the BIKUS (Brandenburg Institute of Clinical Ultrasound), is going to be integrated into the central MHB Skills Lab. The idea is to further professionalize instruction on the topic of ultrasound and reinforce the role of student tutors in the long term.

The MHB Skills Lab is a central learning and exercise venue for students of medicine and dental medicine. The two locations Neuruppin and Brandenburg an der Havel offer up-to-date facilities equipped with instruments, models, skills trainers and simulation stations. This is where students can acquire basic clinical skills, either supervised by instructors and tutors or in self-study. In addition, the GMA (Society for Medical Education)-certified Skills Lab promotes interprofessional training with trainees from a variety of health professions.

Founded in 2017, the BIKUS was recognized as an MHB-affiliated institute in 2018. With the Berlin-Brandenburg Ultrasound Association as its governing body, the institute is concerned with clinical ultrasound diagnostics (USD) in teaching, research, training and further development. From the 1970s onwards, USD has increasingly become an integral part of almost all medical disciplines.

Integration: advantages for students and teachers

The scheduled step-by-step integration is intended to embed teaching content in the central Skills Lab, for the benefit of MHB students who are introduced to USD right from the first semester and have the option of acquiring an ultrasound certificate either as part of the regular curriculum or on an extracurricular basis. Course units, scheduling and room planning as well as digital presentations will be centrally coordinated in future.

Starting with the forthcoming semester, the MHB will assign budget resources to ultrasound training, which will also be duly considered in class schedules. Regular advanced training units in didactics and practice are to extend tutors’ teaching competences. Ultrasound instruction is going to be more strongly integrated into anatomy, physiology and clinical subjects in joint responsibility and closer, more binding and structured collaboration. A first step will be to introduce a fixed number of tuition hours for tutors with a view to extending their employment options and recognition of teaching performance over the next years.

The status of the BIKUS as an affiliated institute will not be affected; its future focus, apart from instruction, will be more on research and conceptual progress, with proactive student participation.

Nora Schiller, in charge of the Skills Lab, calls the integration an important step “to improve the quality of practical training and offer a reliable perspective to our dedicated ultrasound tutors”.

BIKUS director Prof. Dieter Nürnberg explicitly welcomes the planned revision: “We are highly pleased to see the merger of the student-organized ultrasound skills lab and the central MHB Skills Lab. This move serves to ensure the future of student-managed instruction in ultrasound and at the same time the recognition and professionalization of the important practical skills involved. The BIKUS will remain fully concentrated on the exploration and advancement of clinical ultrasound diagnostics, while students will profit from better course structures.”