Endoscopic Ultrasonography Education in Asia: Are We There Yet?

The growth of endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) in Asia outside of Japan has not really kept pace with the development of this technology. One overriding factor inhibiting the wider use of EUS in Asia is the lack of training opportunities. In most hospitals of Asia, no formal training program is available. In order to achieve the highest quality EUS training attainable given these limited resources, we believe efforts will need to be channelled in two directions. One is by sending promising endoscopists to centers of excellence for hands‐on training so that when these endoscopists are trained, they will be able to contribute to the pool of qualified teachers to achieve ‘self‐sufficient’ training of future EUS fellows. The second direction is toward development of well‐structured courses for endoscopy trainees who are unable to obtain formal EUS attachment. These courses should incorporate the opportunity for hands‐on exposure in addition to observational training. We are hopeful that through these measures, we should be able to increase the pool of EUS practitioners and improve acceptance of this imaging modality in Asia in the near future.