Audit and Research

The origins of audit have been reported to date back to as early as 1750 BC when king Hammurabi of Babylon instigated audit for clinicians with regard to outcome. There were serious consequences both financially and to life in the event of poor performance (Modayil et al, 2009).

Clinical audit is a way of finding out whether we are doing what we should be doing. It also verifies whether we are applying the best practice. The audit cycle involves setting-up of standards, measuring current practice, comparing results with standards (criteria), changing practice and re-auditing to make sure practice has improved.

A ‘clinical audit’ is a quality improvement process that seeks to improve patient care and clinical outcomes through a systematic review of care against explicit criteria, and the implementation of change. Changes are implemented at an individual, team or service level and a subsequent re-audit isdone to confirm improvement in health care delivery.

Research on the other hand is creating new knowledge about whether new treatments work and if specific ones work better than others. Research outcome provides the foundation for clinical guidelines and standards and thus determines what best practice should be.

The British Society for Gynaecological Imaging endeavours to explore areas of clinical practice where both research and standards in obstetric and gynaecological ultrasound practice are needed. We would like to encourage and invite members of the Society as well as other ultrasound practitioners to send us their suggestions and proposals and we will do our utmost to support them.

Reference

P C Modayil, R K Panchikkeel and N Alex 2009 Audit in clinical practice. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, 61(2): 109-111, DOI: 10.1007/s12070-009-0043-3)

© Copyright British Society for Gynaecological Imaging 2010. All rights reserved.
Designed & developed by Peter Gill & Associates

Legal | Privacy | Accessibility | Sitemap