Abstract
Standards for echocardiographic laboratorieswere proposed by the European Association of Echocardiography (now the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging) 7 years ago, to raise standards of practice and improve the quality of care. Criteria and requirementswere published at that time for transthoracic, transoesophageal, and stress echocardiography. This paper reassesses and updates the quality standards to take account of experience and the technical developments of modern echocardiographic practice. It also discusses quality control, the incentives for laboratories to apply for accreditation, the re-accreditation criteria, and the current status and future prospects of the laboratory accreditation process. © The Author 2014.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1188-1193 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- Accreditation
- Echocardiography
- Echocardiography laboratory
- Quality standards
- Re-accreditation
- accreditation
- Article
- certification
- clinical competence
- continuing education
- health care quality
- human
- laboratory
- medical device
- medical education
- medical research
- medical society
- medical staff
- organization
- physician
- priority journal
- professional development
- reward
- stress echocardiography
- transesophageal echocardiography
- transthoracic echocardiography
- echocardiography
- Europe
- quality control
- standards
- Laboratories
- Quality Control
- Societies, Medical
