The AIUM's EER Issues an RFP to Help Professionals Help Patients

As sonographers and vascular technologists, it is in our interest for the medical community (as well as the general public) to recognize the benefits of our examinations. This includes the potential and real benefits diagnostic sonography offers as compared to other more costly imaging modalities such as CT or MRI and/or modalities that utilize ionizing radiation like X-ray, nuclear medicine and angiography.

Thus, I was very happy to learn that the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine's Endowment for Education and Research (EER) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for investigations into the costs, accuracy, risks and benefits of sonography compared to other imaging modalities. This is, to my knowledge, the first targeted initiative that the EER has ever undertaken.

In case you are not familiar with the EER, it is an AIUM member-funded endowment designed to support critical research in the field of ultrasound imaging. According to the AIUM's web site, "The fund provides investigators from all disciplines of diagnostic ultrasound with an opportunity to further their professional development and secure the most promising future for ultrasound in medicine."

Each year the EER awards up to $10,000 to four individual projects. Since its inception in 2001, nearly $300,000 has been awarded by the EER for ultrasound education and research.

The new EER RFP is called "Study of Ultrasound Compared to Other Imaging Modalities," and has a deadline for submissions of July 1, 2008.

For this special project, the EER will award up to $50,000 for investigators to evaluate the costs, accuracy, risks and benefits of ultrasound compared to other imaging modalities. Proposals are expected to address decision analyses regarding a specific disease entity, body region or patient symptom. In addition to the potential cost benefits of sonography, radiation exposure (or lack there of) can also be addressed.

Basically, the purpose of the EER's RFP is to encourage investigators to evaluate and uncover the potential costs and/or safety benefits of sonography for use in initial evaluations or follow-up of patients with specific indications.

Examples of possible projects would be:

1. To compare the use of ultrasound-guided breast biopsies to needle localizations using mammography.
2. To compare the use of musculoskeletal sonography to MRI for rotator cuff tears.
3. To determine if intra-operative ultrasound imaging can reduce the need for pre-operative CT for patients with liver metastases.

The results of projects such as these will not only demonstrate how sonography can be employed more cost effectively, but also to expand the use of the modality to the point that its use becomes the standard of care. When and if that happens it will enhance sonography's standing as a diagnostic modality, save valuable healthcare funds and ultimately improve patient care. After all, that's what it's really all about.

More information including a list of criteria and submission forms can be found on the AIUM's EER website.

[Full Disclosure: I received an EER award in 2006 for my project "Enhancing Awareness of the Diagnostic Medical Sonography Professions: A High School Outreach Program."  I am also a member of the AIUM's EER Committee and am on the AIUM Board of Governors.]