Proceedings: Beyond Ultrasound First Forum on Improving the Quality of Ultrasound Imaging in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Abstract

The Beyond Ultrasound First Forum was conceived to increase awareness that the quality of obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound can be improved, and is inconsistent throughout the country, likely due to multiple factors, including the lack of a standardized curriculum and competency assessment in ultrasound teaching. The forum brought together representatives from many professional associations; the imaging community including radiology, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine among others; in addition to government agencies, insurers, industry, and others with common interest in obstetric and gynecologic ultrasound. This group worked together in focus sessions aimed at developing solutions on how to standardize and improve ultrasound training at the resident level and beyond. A new curriculum and competency assessment program for teaching residents (obstetrics and gynecology, radiology, and any other specialty doing obstetrics and gynecology ultrasound) was presented, and performance measures of ultrasound quality in clinical practice were discussed. The aim of this forum was to increase and unify the quality of ultrasound examinations in obstetrics and gynecology with the ultimate goal of improving patient safety and quality of clinical care. This report describes the proceedings of this conference including possible approaches to resident teaching and means to improve the inconsistent quality of ultrasound examinations performed today.

How often do we incidentally find a fetal abnormality at the routine third-trimester growth scan? A population-based study

“…The performance of first-and second-trimester ultrasound will alter the number of remaining undiagnosed malformations in the third trimester. Accurate ultrasound diagnosis of congenital fetal malformations depends on many aspects, including maternal habitus, fetal lie, operator skills, type of equipment, and allocated scan duration 34,35 . Therefore, we felt that it is crucial to report the anomalies detected before and after the third-trimester scan.…”

Accreditation, Credentialing, and Quality Improvement in Diagnostic Medical Sonography: A Literature Review

“…During the course of the research, 23 position papers/statements that focus on accreditation, credentialing, and quality improvement in DMS/diagnostic imaging were found. 23–46 These papers were published between 1995 and 2018, and they follow the pattern noted above in that most of them focus on vascular imaging and echocardiography. Descriptions and illustrative quotes from each paper are listed in Table 2.…”

The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Automation in the Fields of Gynaecology and Obstetrics – an Assessment of the State of Play

“…It is beyond dispute that, to date, only relatively few AI-based ultrasound applications have progressed fully from academic concept to clinical application and commercialisation. In addition to the importance of AI in prenatal diagnostics, as discussed in the following paragraphs, the advantages of AI-based automated algorithms have been very impressively demonstrated in reporting gynaecological abnormalities, a task that is bound to gain in importance, in particular, given the limited quality of existing ultrasound training 25 , 26 , 27 . Even though the first work in this field dates back more than 20 years 28 , significant pioneering work has been conducted in the last decade in particular, not least due to the extensive studies of the IOTA Working Group.…”

“…Unstrittig ist, dass bislang nur relativ wenige KI-basierte Ultraschallanwendungen den gesamten Weg vom akademischen Konzept zur klinischen Anwendung und Kommerzialisierung genommen haben. Neben der in den nachfolgenden Absätzen abgehandelten Bedeutung der KI in der pränatalen Diagnostik, zeigen sich die Vorteile von KI-gestützten automatisierten Algorithmen sehr eindrucksvoll in der Befundung gynäkologischer Auffälligkeiten, was insbesondere in Anbetracht der eingeschränkten Qualität der derzeitigen Ultraschallausbildung eine zusätzliche Wertschätzung erlangen wird 25 , 26 , 27 . Wenngleich die ersten Arbeiten hierzu schon mehr als 20 Jahre zurückliegen 28 , konnte insbesondere in der letzten Dekade maßgebliche Pionierarbeit, nicht zuletzt durch die umfangreichen Studien der IOTA Working Group, geleistet werden.…”