Education and Feedback Intervention to Reduce Inappropriate Transthoracic Echocardiograms

In response to increasing utilization of echocardiography, the American Society of Echocardiography along with the American College of Cardiology released Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in 2007, and these have been subsequently updated in 2011. TTE ordering patterns have been evaluated and have shown that between 15-30% of TTE ordered are inappropriate. The highest rate of inappropriate TTE is found in the outpatient environment, where routine or "surveillance" studies are common. These studies have also found that internists and cardiologists order the majority of TTE. The investigators previously documented that an AUC-based educational and feedback intervention reduced the rate of inappropriate TTE by cardiology and internal medicine physicians-in-training. Whether this type of intervention can improve TTE ordering of attending level physicians is not known.