Effectiveness of on-site education for quality assurance of screening ultrasonography for hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of on-site education for clinical imaging evaluation using quality assurance (QA) testing of surveillance ultrasonography (US) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Material and methods: Thirty-eight medical institutes underwent on-site education in 2012 for QA testing of clinical imaging evaluation of surveillance US for HCC. Failure rates and mean scores of clinical imaging evaluation for surveillance US of the 2011 survey, the 2012 survey after onsite education and the 2013 survey were compared. Results: Failure rates and mean scores of the 2011 survey, the 2012 survey after education and the 2013 survey were 81.6%, 18.4%, 21.1% and 61.7, 82.7 and 74.6, respectively. Pair-wise analyses demonstrated that the failure rate of the 2011 survey was significantly larger compared to that observed in the other surveys. Mean score of the 2013 survey was worse than that of the 2012 survey after on-site education. Conclusions: On-site education positively impacts the failure rate and scores of clinical imaging evaluation of screening US for HCC. However, the impact may be reduced over time, and repeated, annual education might be necessary to maintain US quality.