Congratulations to the

Winners of the Case of the Week, 2005

This is the 7^th annual award of the Winners of the case of the week. 177 participants won at least one case from a pool of about 800-1000 who look and try from time to time.

I am deeply indebted to all those who submitted the Cases of the Week and in particular to Dr. Fabrice Cuillier who, with his team, submitted an incredible 5 cases.

As always, it is so rewarding to see all those bright minds, and interacting with so many smart and dedicated people from all around the world.

Frantisek got a remarkable 19 out of 22 cases this year… What an achievement! Frantisek works in a Ob-Gyn dept. (5-600 deliveries/year) in Ruzomberok in Slovakia. His wife is a nurse and they have an 8-year-old daughter. Frantisek has dedicated many hours solving the cases and his kind answers are always a pleasure to read. He is preparing a LARGE manuscript for his accreditation and that may be the first ever text in Slovak on the site. Franti is also a wonderful humanist with a great heart and I treasure sharing his friendship.  Francois Manson (18) Second place

Francois answered 18 of the cases… in a tense contest for the first spot, and he really did a lot of work too. So much actually that his 6 year old daughter has to peel him off the computer after asking him if "he already found the riddle of his American friendâ€. Francois was the last person on earth not to have a digital camera, a failure he kindly corrected when he had to send his picture (taken by his daughter). His emails are also full of humor and a great pleasure to read. Close to the end of the year he sent the following email: some persons surfing on the fetus.net are sending viruses which destroy completely your hard disk and computer systemso until december 9, DO NOT OPEN messages from the following persons.* R DANKOVCIK* F GROCHAL * C FASCHINBAUER * I VEISZENBACHERREMEMBER DO NOT OPEN :-))))  Robert Dankovcik (16) Third place

Robert has participated to the cases for the past 2 years, but this year, although prenatal diagnosis only represent a small amount of his work week, he put a lot of time and efforts in his answer and got a wonderful 16 of them. Robert is a meticulous man with few words… his answers have to be among the shortest I get… but clearly they are quite successful ! He tried to decline the award saying that he used team work, but his team really does not disqualify him, or if they do, I want to hire them . His wife is a pediatric endocrinologist. He is also the only one who works in a large city !  Gurcan Erbay (12)  Third place

Gurcan comes from a small town in Turkey and works in an Ob-Gyn hospital although.. he is.. a radiologist !! Aside from ultrasound he likes music and movies and takes care of his 2 kids.  Joan Acosta Diez (9)  Fourth place

Joan also works in a tiny city (a recurrent theme in this year's winner's group). He only graduated 2 years ago and aside from music movies and more classical hobbies he share another interest with me: wild mushrooming ! He says it is "a little like sonographic diagnosis, looking for rare species at the forest. His wife is a veterinarian and his 4 year old son a future "Pirate of the Caribbean -  Melek Avcy (9)  Fourth place

Among the past winners, Christa Fashingbauer (20 correct answers) Ildiko Veiszenbacher (17) and Fabienne Bigi (17) deserve all my appreciation for their tenacity in doing the COW and their incredible talents.

The new associate is Dr. Juliana Leite. Juliana applied to the fellowship position the last day of the application, got the top spot and started to work in October this year. Her intelligence, brilliant mind and happy personality have conquered everyone around. An independent worker she wants to find out how to do things by herself and she has vastly improved the time to post the cases.