18A Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography Volume 15 Number 2

At the core of the American Society of Echocardiographyis our commitment to quality in everything we do. Indeedour mission states that we are in an “…organization of pro-fessionals committed to excellence in cardiovascular ultra-sound and its application to patient care….”However,com-mitment is an empty concept unless we accept theresponsibility to make it happen in our organization and inour day-to-day work. How does the American Society ofEchocardiography make its dedication to quality matter?

In our recent reorganization, we have created newgroupings along the lines of our major activities. Given theimportance of quality, it is not surprising that the Qualityand Practice of Echocardiography is one of these areas.Overseeing all Quality and Practice activities are DavidAdams, RDCS, as the Executive Board member in charge ofthis area, and Ashley Prather, our new Deputy Director.

At the core of Quality and Practice activities is theGuidelines and Standards committee, chaired by NeilWeissman, MD, and cochaired by Roberto M. Lang, MD, andTimothy Thigpen, MBA, RDCS. In just a few short months,they have made tremendous strides toward streamliningour guidelines development processes, clarifying the rolesof the writing groups, the parent committee,and the Boardof Directors, improving the review of documents inprogress and identifying ways in which we can producemore timely, more relevant statements. As a start, theyreviewed all documents currently under development andbrought 3 forward for approval at our November Board ofDirectors meeting.They are currently working with a num-ber of writing groups to assist in the timely completion ofhigh quality documents.

The 3 documents approved at our November meetingare important for the partnerships that produced them, aswell as for much of their content. All 3 documents areposted on our Web site at http://www.asecho.org.

The Statement on Myocardial Segmentation and Nomen-clature was sponsored by a record number of organiza-tions in addition to the American Society of Echocardi-ography, including the American Heart Association, theAmerican Society of Nuclear Cardiology, the North Ameri-can Society of Cardiac Imaging, the Society for CardiacAngiography and Interventions, and the Society for Cardio-vascular Magnetic Resonance.The goals of the documentare as follows:

To optimize and facilitate communication between car-diac imaging modalities for research and clinical applica-tions, consensus recommendations (are) made for the fol-lowing: orientation of the heart, names for cardiac planes,number of myocardial segments, selection and thickness of

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS

President’s MessageQUALITY: DO YOU KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT?

cardiac slices for display and analysis, nomenclature andlocation of segments, and assignment of segments to coro-nary arterial territories.

The other 2 documents approved in November 2001were jointly sponsored with the Society of CardiovascularAnesthesia, a close and valued American Society of Echo-cardiography partner in many activities.“The Recommend-ations for a Standardized Report for Adult PerioperativeEchocardiography” joins the new ASE document,“Standardized Echo Report Form” in laying those compo-nents that should be a part of the interpretation of echocar-diograms.We are interested in developing more documentssuch as these, which help our members address issues oforganization and workflow, as well as imaging.

“The Guidelines for Training in Perioperative Echocardi-ography” connects our 2 Societies in providing guidelinesfor training physicians of any background in intraoperativeechocardiography. This is an important shift in emphasisaway from the traditional, more parochial specialty-basedapproach to medical training, and toward a more skill-based, patient-oriented model. We are moving towardaccepting and promoting the more universal concept thatindividuals of any specialty background may become com-petent to perform echocardiography, provided rigoroustraining standards are followed.

The ASE Guidelines and Standards committee is currentlyworking with several writing groups, among them: the

Volume 15 Number 2 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography 19A

tion module for certifying echocardiography laboratoriesperforming vascular studies.This means that an ICAEL-cer-tified laboratory can simply complete another module (asone does for stress echo or transesophageal echocardiog-raphy) rather than completing a burdensome, separateICAVL credentialing process. Just this past year, the NBEbegan a new certification process for physicians, combin-ing the old ASCeXAM testamur status with evidence oftraining and volume standards to form a whole new levelof NBE certification.Achieving NBE certification will be animportant first step in qualifying for the FASE credential.Finally, the American Society of Echocardiography recognizesquality in echocardiography by awarding prizes to the best of thebest in our field. We have long had young investigator researchawards and the Edler lecture to recognize our current and futureleaders. In addition, as is fitting for an organization devoted toexcellence in education and practice, in 2000 and 2001 we added3 new teaching and research awards. The Harvey Feigenbaum,MD, Award honors our best young investigators with a namedkeynote lecture during the Annual Scientific Sessions in June. Itwas won in 2000 by Thomas Porter, MD, and in 2001 by SherifNagueh, MD. The Richard Popp, MD, Award was created in2001 to recognize excellence in teaching. It was awarded to SanjivKaul, MD, in its first year. A sister award, the Cardiac Sonog-rapher Distinguished Teacher Award, was also created in 2001and awarded to Alan Waggoner, MHS, RDMS, in its first year. Wehave also just created the Alan Waggoner Sonographer Scholar-ship that will support a tuition payment for a sonography student.This scholarship award will be awarded for the first time at ourAnnual Scientific Sessions in June 2002.

Quality and excellence can be hard to describe, but theyare no less important because of this limitation. Perhaps itis like pornography,which famously cannot be defined,butyou know it when you see it. At the American Society ofEchocardiography it has been our business to define excel-lence, to support its development in all its forms, to learnfrom those who embody it, and to acknowledge it when-ever possible.

Pamela S. Douglas, MDPresident

American Society of Echocardiography

Clinical Trials Writing Task Force, chaired by JohnGottdiener,MD; the Digital Echo Lab Task Force,chaired byJames D.Thomas, MD, and cochaired by Donna Ehler, BS,RDCS; and the Task Force on Quantification of ValvularRegurgitation chaired by William Zoghbi, MD, andcochaired by Carol Kraft, BS, RDCS, RDMS.

Critical to the eventual development of guidelines andstandards is research.The Research Committee, under thedirection of John Gorcsan, MD, and cochaired by KirstenFleischmann, MD, and Annitta J. Morehead, RDCS, hasrecently expanded its scope to include outcomes grants aswell as a new grant for sonographer research.This bringsthe total of ASE-sponsored grant mechanisms to 4,which inturn supports 6 to 8 grants each year for a total of$350,000. This has been a very successful process withmore than 27 individuals receiving research funds over thepast 6 years, and the ASE receiving national recognitionfrom physicians, payers, and regulatory agencies for lead-ership in this area.

The Accreditation,Certification,and Licensure Committeeis a newly formed committee charged with dealing withthe range of professional credentialing issues in our field.It is chaired by Kirin Sagar, MD, and cochaired by PaulGrayburn, MD, and Margaret Knoll, RDCS.Their goal in thecoming year is to fashion physician and sonographer crite-ria for the new designation as a Fellow of the AmericanSociety of Echocardiography (FASE), so that it representsthe highest pinnacle of quality in cardiovascular ultra-sound.

Two other closely affiliated organizations also focus oncertification and credentialing: the Intersocietal Commis-sion for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories(ICAEL) and the National Board of Echocardiography (NBE).The ASE played a critical role in the birth and early years ofboth of these organizations, although both now function asindependent entities so that there can be no perceived con-flict of interest in their judgements of excellence.

Both organizations have instituted important changes inthe last year that enhance their commitment to excel-lence. ICAEL has just announced a new “add-on” accredita-