Celebrating the AIUM’s 50th Greenbaum-Kremkau Advanced Ultrasound Seminar: OB & GYN

The AIUM’s 50th Greenbaum-Kremkau Advanced Ultrasound Seminar: OB & GYN will be held at Disney’s Yacht Club in Orlando on February 11–13, 2027, but it all began many years ago and I, Frederick W. Kremkau, PhD, FACR, FAIMBE, FAIUM, FASA, am here to tell you all about it.  

The seminar’s story began two years before its inception, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston Salem, North Carolina, in 1975 when, through the vision of neurologist, William McKinney (AIUM President at the time), the Center for Medical Ultrasound (CMU) was founded as a cooperative effort of five medical school departments (Radiology, Cardiology, Neurology, OB/GYN, and Urology). Remember that gray-scale static imaging was just emerging at the time and that real-time anatomic and Doppler flow imaging were not yet commonly available commercially. The CMU instituted a 10-week series of ultrasound courses three times annually for registrants who came from all over the country to learn the new technique. Each one-week or two-week course in the series concentrated on a specific clinical application. Along with another engineer and a medical physicist, I taught the first week of each series on Principles and Instruments. (Out of that experience, the first edition of my principles textbook was published in 1980.) 

The first Director of the CMU, radiologist James (Jim) Martin, invited radiologist Dr. Lennard (Len) Greenbaum from Orlando Regional Medical Center (ORMC, now Orlando Health) to speak in the OB/GYN weeks of the first series. Len told Jim that he was convinced that ultrasound was going to be a significant player in medical diagnostic imaging and that an annual conference should be instituted. He recommended the recently opened Orlando Disney World as the location and that it should be held in winter with an 8:00 am to 1:00 pm schedule so that attendees could attend the parks with their families. Only Magic Kingdom and Sea World were there in those days. It was a formula that has been extremely successful to this day, as this conference is the longest running and largest one of its kind in the world (verbal quote from Alfred Abuhamad, current course co-director). 

The first course was held in 1977 at the Dutch Inn (now a Wyndham) near Disney World with Len and Jim as codirectors. Len served as venue arranger and local host. The CMU provided AV support, attendee registrations, marketing, and CME credits. So, for 35 years, this conference was an annual joint effort supported and managed by Wake Forest and ORMC, which both provided staff support prior to and at each conference. 

In 1985, I was recruited back to Wake as the second CMU Director to collaborate with John Hobbins in OB and Ken Taylor in Radiology. I then also became codirector of the conference with Len. For the first few years, the conference alternated every other year between OB/GYN and non-OB/GYN applications. Len had observed that the OB/GYN years had seen significant growth over the years, while the non-OB/GYN had stayed roughly constant. So, we decided to make OB/GYN the annual topic and the attendance continued to grow. 

In 2010, it was apparent to us that there was no one at our institutions who would likely follow us as seminar co-directors eventually. So, because we both appreciated the AIUM (we were both Past-Presidents), we offered the seminar to the AIUM, which readily accepted the offer. So, the conference became an AIUM seminar in 2013 with attendance continuing to grow into the 700’s. The AIUM’s marketing power has been effective in that growth. 

The conference was held at the Dutch Inn, then at the Buena Vista Palace (now a Hilton), then the Walt Disney World (WDW) Swan. We then relocated to the WDW Yacht Club when it opened in 1991 and have been there ever since. 

Len’s last year (2016) to codirect was his 40th seminar. Harvard radiologist and AIUM Past President, Beryl R. Benacerraf, MD, FAIUM, followed as codirector. My last year as codirector was 2020, and Eastern Virginia Medical School MFM specialist and AIUM Past President Alfred Z. Abuhamad, MD, FAIUM, followed. Though, I have continued to lecture at the seminar annually since then. 

Sadly, Beryl passed away in 2022, so Harvard MFM specialist, Bryann Bromley, MD, FACOG, FAIUM, followed her as Seminar Co-Director. As a result, I am pleased that now there are two MFM’s codirecting the seminar. 

Lennard David Greenbaum, MD, passed away in 2023 at age 79. He had the vision, the plan, and the successful formula for the enduring success of this seminar in 1975 and he skillfully guided it for 40 years. 

Don’t miss your chance to join the 50th Greenbaum-Kremkau Advanced Ultrasound Seminar: OB & GYN, register today for the seminar that honors five decades of education, innovation, expertise, and community, and offers insights on current diagnostic ultrasound challenges and the professional realities of modern practice.