American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) accreditation increases the quality of ultrasound practice, according to an article published in the August 2004 issue of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. The article, "The Accreditation of Ultrasound Practices: Impact on Compliance With Minimum Performance Guidelines," by Alfred Z. Abuhamad et al, concludes that "ultrasound accreditation adds value to the practice by improving compliance with AIUM minimum standards and guidelines for the performance of ultrasound examinations."

This study sought to determine the effectiveness of AIUM accreditation in improving compliance with standards and guidelines for the performance of obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound examinations. A random sample of consecutive AIUM accreditation applications from practices that successfully completed an initial accreditation cycle and a reaccreditation cycle 3 years later was reviewed. A second list of applications from practices that recently completed first-time accreditation was also reviewed as a control group.

Practices applying for AIUM accreditation are required to submit ultrasound case studies for review. Scoring of case studies is designed to reflect the degree of compliance with the minimum criteria for a complete examination as published by the clinical standards and practice guidelines of the AIUM. Scores of case studies from the selected reaccreditation applications were compared with the scores they received at the time of their initial accreditation. Scores from the control group also were compared.

Individual obstetric case studies and the average of all obstetric and gynecologic case studies showed highly significant improvement with the reaccreditation application compared with the initial accreditation application. The proportion of practices successfully meeting obstetric and gynecologic AIUM accreditation requirements improved
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Contact: Adam Freestone
afreestone@aium.org
301-498-4100
American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
21-Jul-2004

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