George A.W. Bruyn, MD became a board-certified rheumatologist in 1989 at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. From 1989 to 2009, he was a consultant rheumatologist with the Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden in Leeuwarden and the Antoniusziekenhuis in Sneek. From 2009 to 2019, he served as Chair of the department of Rheumatology of MC Groep hospitals at Lelystad, the Netherlands. As of 2019 Dr Bruyn is director/ rheumatologist at the "Reumakliniek Flevoland". In 1991, he co-founded the Dutch Working group on Ultrasonography. He is founder of the Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography Study Group of the American College of Rheumatology (1999). Together with Dr. Wolfgang Schmidt, he has been an instructor of the basic and advanced workshops in ultrasonography which are held during the annual meetings of the ACR from 1999-2010. In addition, Dr. Bruyn is a member of the faculty of the EULAR ultrasound courses, is past co-chair of the ultrasound working group of OMERACT and is active forSonoSkills as trainer. Dr. Bruyn (co)authored about 200 papers and book chapters in the field of rheumatology, including diagnostical and therapeutical aspects of osteoporosis, inflammatory disease and musculoskeletal ultrasonography.
Wolfgang Schmidt. MD was born and received his medical education in Berlin, Germany. He received his degree in internal medicine in 1989 and in emergency medicine in 1992. He became a senior physician at Immanuel Krankenhaus Berlin, Medical Center for Rheumatology in Berlin-Buch in 1993 and received his rheumatology degree in 1996. Since 2005 he is deputy director and rheumatology fellowship director of this hospital. His scientific work focuses on musculoskeletal ultrasound and on imaging in vasculitis. He completed habilitation in 2002 and became a professor of Charité University Medicine in Berlin in 2010.He initiated the EULAR Ultrasound Trainer Courses in 2012. He has first described the ultrasound halo sign in giant cellarteritis (GCA; Lancet 1995) and has published the first study on ultrasound in GCA (NEJM 1997). In the late 1990s he has introduced the first ultrasound fast-track clinic in Berlin-Buch which to date sees 100 patients annually with newly diagnosed GCA. He convened the EULAR guidelines on imaging in large vessel vasculitis (LVV) and leads the OMERACT group on ultrasound in LVV.
