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Quality Improvement in Noninvasive Imaging: Present and Future Initiatives

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Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Care

Abstract

Indicators of quality services in pediatric and congenital echocardiography include structural, process, and outcome factors. Structural indicators involve the available resources related to the facility, the equipment, and the staff. Process indicators relate primarily to the activities and tasks associated with echocardiography, and these include patient selection as well as study performance, interpretation, and reporting. Outcome indicators involve the results of quality services and are intimately related to quality improvement activities as well as quality metrics. Current quality improvement activities in the field of pediatric and congenital echocardiography include development of the accreditation process for sonographers, physicians, and echocardiography laboratories; evaluation of productivity standards within echocardiography laboratories; identification of appropriate use criteria specific to pediatric and congenital echocardiography; and establishment of a robust database of normal reference values for cardiovascular measurements in children. Candidate quality metrics currently in development involve reporting of critical results, adverse events with sedated studies, variability of echocardiographic measurements, diagnostic errors, study completeness, and image quality.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, 3415 Bainbridge Avenue, Rosenthal 1, Bronx, NY, 10467, USA

    Leo Lopez MD, FASE, FACC, FAAP

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  1. Leo Lopez MD, FASE, FACC, FAAP
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Correspondence to Leo Lopez MD, FASE, FACC, FAAP .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine,, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Paul R. Barach

  2. Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery,, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute, All Children’s Hospital and Florida Hospital for Children, Johns Hopkins University, St. Petersburg, Tampa, Orlando, FL, USA, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Jeffery P. Jacobs

  3. School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

    Steven E. Lipshultz

  4. University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Peter C. Laussen

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© 2015 Springer-Verlag London

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Lopez, L. (2015). Quality Improvement in Noninvasive Imaging: Present and Future Initiatives. In: Barach, P., Jacobs, J., Lipshultz, S., Laussen, P. (eds) Pediatric and Congenital Cardiac Care. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6566-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-6566-8_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-6565-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-6566-8

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