Ultrasound Academy is a 5-day practical course dedicated to practising abdominal ultrasound to the most advanced level each participant can reach. This course runs from Monday to Friday and provides you with a full week of supervised hands-on training. It is appropriate for veterinary surgeons at a beginner - intermediate level of skills in abdominal ultrasound.

Before the practical course, you are given access to a distance-based course to review the principles of ultrasound and how to perform a full abdominal ultrasound. When you attend the practical sessions, you will be performing ultrasound from day 1.

Participants are placed in groups of 2 to 3 and swap between patient restraint and ultrasound. There are a minimum of 2 ultrasound machines and an experienced veterinary ultrasonographer guiding the participants, demonstrating techniques and ensuring that everyone can reach their individual goals. Ultrasounds are performed on a variety of dogs. Several of these dogs are brought down from the Council Dog Ward and have been diagnosed with systemic disease (ie Leishmania, heartworm), which may allow for the assessment of ultrasonographic changes.

The practical course takes place at our partner training centre in Vila Franca de Xira, Lisbon, Portugal. The training centre is located 25 mins away from Lisbon airport.

As part of the course fees, participants have access to accommodation off site with their own private bedroom (not shared, unless requested). All meals from Monday to Friday (breakfast, lunch in restaurant and dinner in restaurant) are also included.

We will follow up with you after your practicals and make sure your journey continues: you will remain in the active community, where you can share your cases and get advice from your tutor.

We are VetCEE accredited and provide 1.5 ECTS credits, as well as a minimum 45h of CPD.

Pre-registration is mandatory (see booking link). After pre-registration, you will speak with one of our Academy Managers to check dates and make sure you know what to expect from this Academy.

DATES FOR 2026:

• 20 - 24 April - LAST MINUTE VACANCY
• For future dates, join the priority list through the pre-registration form on the booking link (if you are in the priority list, registration opens for you for 2 weeks exclusively before being publicly available)

If you are interested in other imaging academies, we also run an Echocardio Academy focusing on the technique.

If you are interested in surgical skills, we run Spay Academy for cats (level 1) and also just for bitch spays (level 2).