ICAEL certifies Shands pediatric echocardiograph program<

by: Cecilia Furey

The volume of the pediatric echocardiography program at Shands at the University of Florida has increased 10 percent annually for the past five years. This is reflected in the acquisition of equipment and sonographers and improvement in the level of quality and detail.

The echocardiography program has recently received certification from the Intersocietal Commission Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories. The program has five trained sonographers, eight pediatric cardiologists, and five echocardiography machines for use on the inpatient service, outpatient department, OR, and cardiac catheterization laboratory, and another machine dedicated to research.

“The echocardiography program has grown steadily over the past five years and will expand even further in the near future with the formation of a Congenital Cardiac Center at Shands at UF. Since echocardiography is central to patient management, the echo lab is where everybody gathers to review and discuss patient management,” said Barry Byrne, M.D., Ph.D, UF College of Medicine professor and associate chair of pediatrics.

The certification process is an extensive quality assurance program, taking over a year to complete. To support the program, improvements included an equipment upgrade and a state-of-the-art digital acquisition and archival system that does not involve video tapes; it is a fully digital lab where physicians have the ability to teleconference with other physicians. Additionally, it is a full-service lab dedicated to treating children and adults with congenital heart disease.

“The certification process included a lot of organized documentation regarding the echocardiography lab policies, procedures and studies performed. Studies were submitted for review that were performed by each sonographer, interpreted by each physician, and included a variety of acquired and congenital defects,” said Carolyn Spencer, M.D., UF College of Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics and director of pediatric echocardiography.

Obtaining the ICAEL certification is an effort to ensure consistency and evaluation of the work of the program’s medical staff, who perform more than 5000 studies each year.

Spencer and Byrne agree that the specially trained sonographers, who are involved in all aspects of patient care from the outpatient setting to the OR and the cath lab, are key to the success of the program.

“We’re fortunate to have such a well trained staff and the most up-to-date equipment,” Spencer said.

Funding from the Children’s Miracle Network has allowed the program to hire an additional sonographer, obtain two echo machines and purchase the specialized probes for TEE, ICE and fetal studies.

For more information or to refer a patient, call (352) 392-6431.

[BOXED COPY]A national Barth Syndrome conference is scheduled for July in Orlando. The planners of the conference are not only inviting the scientific community but are including families and patients with Barth Syndrome. Shelley Bowen, Tampa mother of two sons with the defect, is president of the Barth Syndrome Foundation.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION

The pediatric echocardiography lab does four types of echocardiograph procedures:

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