Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, Washington.
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, Orlando, Florida.
J Am Soc Echocardiogr. 2018 Sep;31(9):976-982. doi: 10.1016/j.echo.2018.03.001. Epub 2018 May 31.
The American Society of Echocardiography Committee on Pediatric Echocardiography Laboratory Productivity was formed in 2011 to study institutional factors that could influence the clinical productivity of physicians and sonographers in academic pediatric echocardiography laboratories. In the previous two surveys, staff clinical productivity remained stable while total echocardiography volumes increased. This third survey was designed to assess how clinical productivity is associated with laboratory infrastructure elements such as training, administrative tasks, quality improvement, research, and use of focused cardiac ultrasound (FCU).
Survey questions were sent by e-mail to North American laboratories. The aims were to assess (1) educational and training obligations, (2) academic productivity and research, (3) laboratory medical director satisfaction, (4) quality improvement, (5) laboratory leadership roles, and (6) impact and use of FCU. Survey responses were compared with clinical productivity metrics defined in the first two surveys.
There were 38 responses. Academic productivity was higher at institutions with more dedicated imaging personnel, personnel with dedicated protected academic time, and advanced imaging fellows. Academic productivity did not correlate with clinical productivity and was not significantly affected by the presence of dedicated research sonographers. The satisfaction level of laboratory medical directors was related to dedicated administrative time and an administrative stipend. The majority of administrative roles were tasked to the laboratory medical director with support of the technical director. FCU was listed as a hospital privilege at four institutions (13%). Twenty-two (58%) were training FCU providers in one or more subspecialties. FCU was not associated with clinical or academic productivity.
This third survey gathered supplemental data to complement the clinical productivity data collected from the first two surveys. Together, the results of these surveys further describe the range of factors that can affect North American academic pediatric echocardiography laboratories.
美国超声心动图学会儿科超声心动图实验室生产力委员会成立于 2011 年，旨在研究可能影响学术儿科超声心动图实验室医生和超声技师临床生产力的机构因素。在前两次调查中，工作人员的临床生产力保持稳定，而总超声心动图量增加。本次第三次调查旨在评估临床生产力与实验室基础设施要素（如培训、行政任务、质量改进、研究和使用心脏超声聚焦技术（FCU））之间的关系。
通过电子邮件向北美实验室发送调查问题。目的是评估（1）教育和培训义务，（2）学术生产力和研究，（3）实验室医学主任满意度，（4）质量改进，（5）实验室领导角色，以及（6）FCU 的影响和使用。调查结果与前两次调查中定义的临床生产力指标进行了比较。
共收到 38 份回复。在拥有更多专门影像人员、有专门的学术时间、有先进的影像研究员的机构中，学术生产力更高。学术生产力与临床生产力没有相关性，也不受专门研究超声技师的存在的显著影响。实验室医学主任的满意度与专门的行政时间和行政津贴有关。大多数行政角色都分配给了实验室医学主任，由技术主任提供支持。在四家机构（13%）中，FCU 被列为医院特权。有 22 家（58%）机构在一个或多个亚专科培训 FCU 提供者。FCU 与临床或学术生产力无关。
本次第三次调查收集了补充数据，以补充前两次调查中收集的临床生产力数据。这些调查的结果共同进一步描述了可能影响北美学术儿科超声心动图实验室的一系列因素。
