Echocardiography lab gets accreditation

A useful test for detecting, diagnosing and managing many types of heart disease, echocardiography is performed an estimated 10 million times a year in the United States.

The echocardiography laboratory at the University Hospitals, the first in the Chicago area and one of the first 16 centers of its kind in the United States and Canada, is also one of the first in North America to receive recognition for diagnostic accuracy.

“We are proud to be one of the first U.S. centers to gain accreditation in this complex specialty, and we welcome a new level of quality control to the field,” said Roberto Lang, Professor in Medicine and Director of the lab. The Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation for Echocardiography Laboratories recently granted accreditation to the University Hospitals’ laboratory.

The ICAEL, based in Columbia, Md., was established with the support of the American College of Cardiology, the American Society of Echocardiography and the Society of Pediatric Echocardiography to provide a peer-review mechanism to encourage and recognize the provision of quality echocardiographic diagnostic evaluations.

Echocardiography is a standard heart-imaging test that uses sound waves to reveal valuable information about the heart’s structure, movements and blood flow.

The University Hospitals’ echocardiography laboratory has long been recognized as a leader in the field for both research and clinical expertise.