University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA.
RTI International, Durham, NC, USA.
Glob Health Sci Pract. 2016 Dec 28;4(4):675-683. doi: 10.9745/GHSP-D-16-00156. Print 2016 Dec 23.
High quality is important in medical imaging, yet in many geographic areas, highly skilled sonographers are in short supply. Advances in Internet capacity along with the development of reliable portable ultrasounds have created an opportunity to provide centralized remote quality assurance (QA) for ultrasound exams performed at rural sites worldwide. We sought to harness these advances by developing a web-based tool to facilitate QA activities for newly trained sonographers who were taking part in a cluster randomized trial investigating the role of limited obstetric ultrasound to improve pregnancy outcomes in 5 low- and middle-income countries. We were challenged by connectivity issues, by country-specific needs for website usability, and by the overall need for a high-throughput system. After systematically addressing these needs, the resulting QA website helped drive ultrasound quality improvement across all 5 countries. It now offers the potential for adoption by future ultrasound- or imaging-based global health initiatives.
高质量在医学成像中很重要，但在许多地区，高技能的超声医师都很短缺。随着互联网容量的增加以及可靠的便携式超声技术的发展，为全球农村地区进行的超声检查提供集中的远程质量保证（QA）成为可能。我们希望通过开发一个基于网络的工具来利用这些进展，该工具可用于对正在参与一项集群随机试验的新培训的超声医师进行 QA 活动，该试验研究了有限的产科超声在改善 5 个低收入和中等收入国家的妊娠结局方面的作用。我们面临着连接性问题、网站可用性的特定于国家的需求以及总体上对高通量系统的需求等挑战。在系统地解决了这些需求之后，该 QA 网站有助于推动所有 5 个国家的超声质量改进。它现在为未来的超声或成像为基础的全球卫生计划的采用提供了潜力。
