Open access echocardiography has diagnostic yield similar to outpatient echocardiography and is highly rated by general practitioners and patients

Detection of heart disease by open access echocardiography: a retrospective analysis of general practice referrals

“…Valve disease is reported in 12-42% of cases in unrestricted open access services and LV systolic dysfunction in 9-30%. 13,14,16 These incidences are far higher than expected with population screening 1,3 and similar to those in hospitalbased outpatient clinics 15,17 suggesting that GPs are not overusing the service.…”

“…Some describe services set up solely for heart failure. [10][11][12] Those few with relatively unrestricted indications [13][14][15][16] confirm that murmur and possible heart failure are the two most common reasons for referral while, not surprisingly, valve disease and LV systolic dysfunction are the two most common abnormalities detected. Valve disease is reported in 12-42% of cases in unrestricted open access services and LV systolic dysfunction in 9-30%.…”

Part 3 - Cardiac Death in Athletes Implementation of a High Quality, Low Cost, Pathophysiologic Screening Exam

“…It is tempting to make decisions about selection of a screening test based on cost minimization, which is only reasonable if the tests are comparable and the clinical outcomes are the same. This is rarely the case ---for example when testing a simple binary assessment between normal and abnormal risk state one might assume that both ECG and echocardiography are superficially similar, but in reality they are markedly different with respect to the sensitivity (rule-out testing) and specificity (rule-in testing) of Pathophysiologic risk [7,20,21]. Absolute cost comparisons are unreliable because the test characteristics and demands are so extremely variable [19].…”

“…Is defined as services ordered by a designated health care provider without pre-test assessment by experts [21,46]. The athletic population represents the essence of normal, which does not justify the expense of pretest experts [21].…”

“…The athletic population represents the essence of normal, which does not justify the expense of pretest experts [21]. Open access and computer-assisted decision-making allow the user to prioritize referral and alleviate unnecessary expenses [29,51,52] .…”