山田 聡

Satoshi YAMADA

北海道大学大学院医学研究院 循環病態内科学

Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University

キーワード : standardization, ultrasound, diagnosis, quality control, education

超音波検査はわが国の広い範囲に分散する膨大な数の小規模の医療機関にまで満遍なく普及しており，施設や検者の間での検査方法や評価内容の差異は大きい．この問題を克服して，医療全体の質の向上に貢献するためには，施設間・検者間での超音波診断法の標準化が必要である．そのためには，学会が発行するガイドラインや勧告を活用し，施設の実情に合わせてこれらをカスタマイズする必要がある．また，施設の検査システムや検者の診断能力に関する精度管理が必要となる．このような標準化と精度管理のための課題は多岐にわたるが，何よりも，地域ごとの多層的な教育活動が重要である．本項では，超音波診断の標準化にまつわる問題点を提起してみたい．

Ultrasonic diagnostic methods have come into wide use even among an enormous number of small-sized medical facilities distributed widely across Japan. Therefore, there is a significant difference in the method of examination and the interpretation of the findings among medical facilities and among the examiners. With a view to enhancing the quality of community medicine by overcoming these problems, it is important to standardize diagnostic techniques among the facilities and examiners. For that purpose, guidelines and recommendations published by medical associations should be utilized after being customized according to the needs of each facility. Additionally, quality control of a facility’s testing system and the diagnostic capability of examiners is also necessary. Of various issues related to the standardization and quality control to be addressed, ultrasonography-related multi-tiered educational activities in the community are of particular importance. In this article, I intend to raise the issues related to the standardization of ultrasound diagnosis.