Quality Assurance Practices Research Articles

Contemporary Trends in Quality Assurance in Distance Education

With the emergence of day-by-day increasing distance learning institutions worldwide, the question of quality assurance (QA) in distance education (DE) needs to be addressed at appropriate level. The objective of this paper was to examine various QA practices undertaken by several QA regulatory bodies and existing models in distance and online education being followed globally. The researcher undertook extensive review of related literature pertaining to QA practices worldwide to reach at a common ground that how a DE institution be dealt in relation to its QA needs. The paper highlighted that prevailing QA models in distance and online learning have been developed in response to specific demands of stakeholders to ensure transparency and improved attention towards learning outcomes, that means a single model is not likely to fulfil the needs of all stakeholders. The paper also emphasised that it will neither be appropriate nor admissible to prefer and recommend one system of QA to another since the selection mostly depends on the efficacy and relevance of model to the specific needs, aims and maturity of educational institutions. In addition, the paper provided a comparative review of research on the effectiveness of QA practices in DE. Some recent studies reviewed in this paper highlighted the similar nature of benchmarks or dimensions for an external QA system for distance and online programs with minor variations on account of institutional local needs. However, due to technological developments external QA instruments may need revision to deal current standards and best practices.

Recommendations on the practice of calibration, dosimetry, and quality assurance for gamma stereotactic radiosurgery: Report of AAPM Task Group 178.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) formed Task Group 178 (TG-178) to perform the following tasks: review in-phantom and in-air calibration protocols for gamma stereotactic radiosurgery (GSR), suggest a dose rate calibration protocol that can be successfully utilized with all gamma stereotactic radiosurgery (GSR) devices, and update quality assurance (QA) protocols in TG-42 (AAPM Report 54, 1995) for static GSR devices. The TG-178 report recommends a GSR dose rate calibration formalism and provides tabulated data to implement it for ionization chambers commonly used in GSR dosimetry. The report also describes routine mechanical, dosimetric, and safety checks for GSR devices, and provides treatment process quality assurance recommendations. Sample worksheets, checklists, and practical suggestions regarding some QA procedures are given in appendices. The overall goal of the report is to make recommendations that help standardize GSR physics practices and promote the safe implementation of GSR technologies.

Survey of patient-specific quality assurance practice for IMRT and VMAT.

A first‐time survey across 15 cancer centers in Ontario, Canada, on the current practice of patient‐specific quality assurance (PSQA) for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) delivery was conducted. The objectives were to assess the current state of PSQA practice, identify areas for potential improvement, and facilitate the continued improvement in standardization, consistency, efficacy, and efficiency of PSQA regionally. The survey asked 40 questions related to PSQA practice for IMRT/VMAT delivery. The questions addressed PSQA policy and procedure, delivery log evaluation, instrumentation, measurement setup and methodology, data analysis and interpretation, documentation, process, failure modes, and feedback. The focus of this survey was on PSQA activities related to routine IMRT/VMAT treatments on conventional linacs, including stereotactic body radiation therapy but excluding stereotactic radiosurgery. The participating centers were instructed to submit answers that reflected the collective view or opinion of their department and represented the most typical process practiced. The results of the survey provided a snapshot of the current state of PSQA practice in Ontario and demonstrated considerable variations in the practice. A large majority (80%) of centers performed PSQA measurements on all VMAT plans. Most employed pseudo‐3D array detectors with a true composite (TC) geometry. No standard approach was found for stopping or reducing frequency of measurements. The sole use of delivery log evaluation was not widely implemented, though most centers expressed interest in adopting this technology. All used the Gamma evaluation method for analyzing PSQA measurements; however, no universal approach was reported on how Gamma evaluation and pass determination criteria were determined. All or some PSQA results were reviewed regularly in two‐thirds of the centers. Planning related issues were considered the most frequent source for PSQA failures (40%), whereas the most frequent course of action for a failed PSQA was to review the result and decide whether to proceed to treatment.

A Methodology for Incorporating Quality Assurance Practices during Software Development Life Cycle

The aim of quality assurance in software development is to ensure that a software product meets its practical business specifications and quality requirements. A comprehensive overview of different software quality requirement and quality assurance practices have been performed to find out the most appropriate software quality assurance practices at different stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC). A methodology along with its implementation during SDLC has been proposed in this research paper. The proposed methodology will help software development teams to achieve quality assurance goals during software development.

Coastal Ocean Data Analysis Product in North America (CODAP-NA) – an internally consistent data product for discrete inorganic carbon, oxygen, and nutrients on the North American ocean margins

Abstract. Internally consistent, quality-controlled (QC) data products play an important role in promoting regional-to-global research efforts to understand societal vulnerabilities to ocean acidification (OA). However, there are currently no such data products for the coastal ocean, where most of the OA-susceptible commercial and recreational fisheries and aquaculture industries are located. In this collaborative effort, we compiled, quality-controlled, and synthesized 2 decades of discrete measurements of inorganic carbon system parameters, oxygen, and nutrient chemistry data from the North American continental shelves to generate a data product called the Coastal Ocean Data Analysis Product in North America (CODAP-NA). There are few deep-water (> 1500 m) sampling locations in the current data product. As a result, crossover analyses, which rely on comparisons between measurements on different cruises in the stable deep ocean, could not form the basis for cruise-to-cruise adjustments. For this reason, care was taken in the selection of data sets to include in this initial release of CODAP-NA, and only data sets from laboratories with known quality assurance practices were included. New consistency checks and outlier detections were used to QC the data. Future releases of this CODAP-NA product will use this core data product as the basis for cruise-to-cruise comparisons. We worked closely with the investigators who collected and measured these data during the QC process. This version (v2021) of the CODAP-NA is comprised of 3391 oceanographic profiles from 61 research cruises covering all continental shelves of North America, from Alaska to Mexico in the west and from Canada to the Caribbean in the east. Data for 14 variables (temperature; salinity; dissolved oxygen content; dissolved inorganic carbon content; total alkalinity; pH on total scale; carbonate ion content; fugacity of carbon dioxide; and substance contents of silicate, phosphate, nitrate, nitrite, nitrate plus nitrite, and ammonium) have been subjected to extensive QC. CODAP-NA is available as a merged data product (Excel, CSV, MATLAB, and NetCDF; https://doi.org/10.25921/531n-c230, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/oceans/ncei/ocads/metadata/0219960.html, last access: 15 May 2021) (Jiang et al., 2021a). The original cruise data have also been updated with data providers' consent and summarized in a table with links to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) archives (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/ocean-acidification-data-stewardship-oads/synthesis/NAcruises.html).

Assessing genotyping errors in mammalian museum study skins using high-throughput genotyping-by-sequencing

The use of museum specimens held in natural history repositories for population and conservation genetic research is increasing in tandem with the use of massively parallel sequencing technologies. Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), or microsatellite loci, are commonly used genetic markers in wildlife and population genetic studies. However, they traditionally suffered from a host of issues including length homoplasy, high costs, low throughput, and difficulties in reproducibility across laboratories. Massively parallel sequencing technologies can address these problems, but the incorporation of museum specimen derived DNA suffers from significant fragmentation and exogenous DNA contamination. Combatting these issues requires extra measures of stringency in the lab and during data analysis, yet there have not been any high-throughput sequencing studies evaluating microsatellite allelic dropout from museum specimen extracted DNA. In this study, we evaluate genotyping errors derived from mammalian museum skin DNA extracts for previously characterized microsatellites across PCR replicates utilizing high-throughput sequencing. We found it useful to classify samples based on DNA concentration, which determined the rate by which genotypes were accurately recovered. Longer microsatellites performed worse in all museum specimens. Allelic dropout rates across loci were dependent on sample quantity, with high concentration museum specimens performing as well and recovering quality metrics nearly as high as the frozen tissue sample. Based on our results, we provide a set of best practices for quality assurance and incorporation of reliable genotypes from museum specimens.

How Qualitative Inquiry Can Enlighten Instructional Pragmatics: An Example from a Case of Teaching Implicatures

Pragmatic competence is a constituent of overall communicative ability, and within pragmatic competence, implicature comprehension is itself a constituent. This generates studies on teaching implicature comprehension, most of which are lacking in qualitative probes into how attributable the ensuing performance changes are to the instructional materials and procedures themselves. Nevertheless, effective assessment of pedagogical interventions/innovations would require experimental studies to be adopted along with qualitative research for in-depth understanding from participants’ perspective. In this regard, through semi-structured retrospective interviews, the current study investigated how far and in what ways the performance changes after a project on teaching implicatures via film could be ascribed to the treatment itself. The content analysis results indicate that the performance changes originated mainly from the instruction and illuminate the share of the filmic materials as the innovative component there. On account of these, with its epistemological approach enabling triangulation, the study contributes to instructional pragmatics by providing an exemplary practice of quality assurance in teaching implicature comprehension/interpretation.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND POSSIBLE TRENDS INTO THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: A REVIEW

COVID-19 virus pandemic resulted to abrupt closure of higher education institutions globally as a strategy to manage its spread. This has extensively impacted on the core functions of higher education which include teaching, research and community service. Through a desktop review of relevant literature, the study explored the impacts, mitigation measures adopted, emerging challenges and the future of higher education in the context of COVID-19. The pandemic disrupted the academic calendar, research activities, displaced students, and there has been loss in revenue streams and human resources. It is likely to affect sustainability of local and international higher education. Higher education institutions responded by leveraging the use Information Communication technology (ICT) to minimize disruptions. Challenges experienced include unreliable internet connectivity and ICT infrastructure, equity in access to remote teaching and learning, staff and students’ readiness, assessment of learning, resource constraints, delivery of field and practical courses and quality assurance in emergency remote teaching and learning. The impacts, responses and challenges have been manifested with gaps and inequalities between learners, institutions and countries. The study envisions widescale uptake of blended delivery of academic programmes, capacity building for staff and students on online pedagogy and a holistic quality assurance framework that infuses achievement of desired learning outcomes with Maslow Hierarchy of needs. Greater emphasis will be placed on the entrepreneurial university, institutional mergers and strategic planning for disasters.

An incentive mechanism-based framework to assure the quality of self-organizing peer review in preprint

PurposePreprint has become an important vehicle for academic communications and discussions. However, in preprint, there is a lack of a sufficient quality control mechanism such as peer review, which is a proven quality assurance practice that is used in traditional academic publishing services. To address the problem leveraging on the power of this practice, the authors introduce into preprint a self-organizing peer review method by applying the concept of token economy and the blockchain technology.Design/methodology/approachSpecifically, this paper proposes an idea that applies the token economy concept to the design of the incentive and penalty mechanisms for peer reviewers in preprint to assure the qualities of its publications. Steemit has been studied to demonstrate the characteristics of the mechanisms.FindingsA token economy-enhanced framework for self-organizing peer review in preprint is also proposed. The resulting preprint system is an academic community-oriented, self-organizing and blockchain-based content publishing system that is designed to run on both permissioned and permissionless blockchains.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, since peer review is on a voluntary basis and not profits oriented, the “monetary” incentive and penalty mechanisms borrowed from Steemit may conflict with academic ethics. Second, the authors proposed to deploy the authors’ token economy on blockchain, but the current mainstream decentralized blockchain services are too few to warrant a foreseeable successful future for the authors’ application. In fact, as the flagship of blockchain 2.0, the Ethereum blockchain suffers from the problem of scalability, which leads to its applications' lower performances, longer response times and eventually more negative user experiences as time goes by. Finally, the authors’ proposed version of preprint has not been implemented, and hence, its practical effectiveness and acceptance by academia are yet to be evaluated.Practical implicationsIn this paper, the authors proposed a token economy-based framework for self-organizing peer review in preprint leveraging on blockchain technology. This framework encourages positive interactions between authors and reviewers, which helps to establish a healthy academic ecology that produces more contents with better qualities. Application of a solution based on the authors’ framework should impact the current academic communities by offering a new academic peer reviewing tool that has a built-in mechanism for self-behavior correction and quality assurance.Social implicationsThrough adaption, the framework can be applied to other domains as well. In such domains, a large amount of feedbacks from partakers are needed and there exists a tremendous amount of work to filter noises in feedbacks so as to ensure that as many the quality ones as possible are delivered for a variety of purposes. The authors’ framework essentially impacts almost all domains where there exists a need to collect and filter large amount of feedbacks, and using the authors’ framework-based solution is cost-saving, which can be seen as a major potential contribution of the research.Originality/valueThe incentive and penalty mechanisms encourage positive interactions between authors and reviewers, and it helps to establish a healthy academic ecology that produces high-volume contents with good qualities.

Role of Knowledge Management in Ensuring Quality of Higher Education in Al-Quds University from the Academic Staff's Perspective

The concept of knowledge management has acquired significance recently for its relevance to the concept of total information management. This study aimed to investigate the role of knowledge management in ensuring quality of higher education in Al-Quds University from the viewpoint of academics. To achieve this objective, the descriptive, analytical method was followed. (150) academics were randomly selected for the study from Al-Quds University during 2019/2020. A questionnaire was developed based on previous studies; and after checking its reliability and validity, it was used to collect data. The data was analyzed by using SPSS to conduct statistical procedures, including T-test and ANOVA. Major findings revealed that there was a positive role for Operations management knowledge in quality assurance, and the academics' assessment regarding knowledge management and quality assurance practice was medium. The independent variables (knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, application and generation of knowledge) combined had a positive effect on the dependent variable (achieving quality of higher education at Al-Quds University). It was also found that there was a positive effect for the knowledge sharing variable. In other words, the higher the level of knowledge management is, the greater the achievement of the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University is. The independent variables (gender, academic rank, college) had an impact on the dependent variable (achieving the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University). It was found that there was a positive effect for the academic rank variable, and a negative effect for the college variable, which means that the higher the academic rank is, moving towards science colleges, the more the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University will be, which means knowledge management helps in achieving the quality of higher education. The study recommended the need to raise the efficiency of knowledge management processes at Al-Quds University because of its role in achieving higher education quality.
 keywords: management knowledge, quality of higher education, Al-Quds university.

Role of Knowledge Management in Ensuring Quality of Higher Education in Al-Quds University from the Academic Staff's Perspective

The concept of knowledge management has acquired significance recently for its relevance to the concept of total information management. This study aimed to investigate the role of knowledge management in ensuring quality of higher education in Al-Quds University from the viewpoint of academics. To achieve this objective, the descriptive, analytical method was followed. (150) academics were randomly selected for the study from Al-Quds University during 2019/2020. A questionnaire was developed based on previous studies; and after checking its reliability and validity, it was used to collect data. The data was analyzed by using SPSS to conduct statistical procedures, including T-test and ANOVA. Major findings revealed that there was a positive role for Operations management knowledge in quality assurance, and the academics' assessment regarding knowledge management and quality assurance practice was medium. The independent variables (knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, application and generation of knowledge) combined had a positive effect on the dependent variable (achieving quality of higher education at Al-Quds University). It was also found that there was a positive effect for the knowledge sharing variable. In other words, the higher the level of knowledge management is, the greater the achievement of the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University is. The independent variables (gender, academic rank, college) had an impact on the dependent variable (achieving the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University). It was found that there was a positive effect for the academic rank variable, and a negative effect for the college variable, which means that the higher the academic rank is, moving towards science colleges, the more the quality of higher education at Al-Quds University will be, which means knowledge management helps in achieving the quality of higher education. The study recommended the need to raise the efficiency of knowledge management processes at Al-Quds University because of its role in achieving higher education quality.
 keywords: management knowledge, quality of higher education, Al-Quds university.

Higher Education Quality Assurance and Accreditation Implementation in Several Countries across the World and Lessons Learned for Vietnam

Quality assurance and accreditation in higher education has been implemented in many countries across the world with the main purposes of quality control, quality improvement and accountability. This paper aims to synthesize and analyze quality assurance and accreditation policies and practices in Australia, the U.S. and several other countries in Europe and Asia to propose recommendations for Vietnam. Employing the method of document analysis, the study reviewed scholarly papers and scientific reports discussing the implementation of quality assurance and accreditation in many higher education systems across the world. The results showed that quality assurance and accreditation activities were diverse ranging from institutional accreditation to program accreditation, from voluntary to compulsory accreditation, and from fitness-for-purpose approaches to standard-based approaches. These findings were used to compare and contrast the emerging quality assurance and accreditation system of Vietnam and make recommendations for its future development.

A systematic literature review and taxonomy of modern code review

Context:Modern Code Review (MCR) is a widely known practice of software quality assurance. However, the existing body of knowledge of MCR is currently not understood as a whole. Objective:Our goal is to identify the state of the art on MCR, providing a structured overview and an in-depth analysis of the research done in this field. Methods:We performed a systematic literature review, selecting publications from four digital libraries. Results:A total of 139 papers were selected and analyzed in three main categories. Foundational studies are those that analyze existing or collected data from the adoption of MCR. Proposals consist of techniques and tools to support MCR, while evaluations are studies to assess an approach or compare a set of them. Conclusion:The most represented category is foundational studies, mainly aiming to understand the motivations for adopting MCR, its challenges and benefits, and which influence factors lead to which MCR outcomes. The most common types of proposals are code reviewer recommender and support to code checking. Evaluations of MCR-supporting approaches have been done mostly offline, without involving human subjects. Five main research gaps have been identified, which point out directions for future work in the area.

Book review: Quality assurance and assessment practices in translation and interpreting

Book review: Quality assurance and assessment practices in translation and interpreting

Guidelines for Promoting the Implementation of Pharmaceutical Quality Systems at EAEU Enterprises Through the Management of the Engagement of Production Personnel

Introduction. The publication is devoted to the topical organizational and personnel issues of the implementation of the pharmaceutical quality system (PQS). The relevance of the study is due to the high importance of quality assurance in the development, production and release of drugs into circulation.Aim. The aim: to develop guidelines for organizational and personnel assistance in the implementation of pharmaceutical quality systems at enterprises of the Eurasian Union (EAEU) for the production of medicines (drugs) through the toolkit for engaging production personnel in the development of PQS.Materials and methods. Personnel engagement was assessed based on the engagement index; the benchmarking method was used when studying the impact of the engagement of production personnel on the economic indicators of corporate development (indicators of engagement and related economic indicators of “Akrikhin”, “Ozon” were compared with a panel of similar indicators for 12 pharmaceutical enterprises of the EAEU).Results and discussion. The important role of ensuring an increase in the engagement of production personnel in the development of PQS as a tool for sustainable provision of the effectiveness of the implementation of PQS and standards of good manufacturing practice (GMP) at drug production enterprises is stated. Taking into account the experience of forming quality circles in classical Japanese management, an innovative toolkit for managing the engagement of production personnel is proposed, based on the formation of employee communities, coordination and management of their engagement and development through the corporate portal of a pharmaceutical enterprise, as well as membership in closed clubs of ‘quality leaders’.Conclusion. Management of communities (small groups) of production workers is considered as a tool for improving the organizational and personnel support for the implementation and improvement of PQS / GMP at the EAEU pharmaceutical manufacturers. Through the communities, it is proposed to simultaneously manage the engagement, loyalty and job satisfaction of production personnel; community members, through the exchange of best manufacturing practices, ideas and opinions on the development of PQS and the improvement of nuclear quality assurance practices, will stimulate themselves and other production workers to consistently ensure the quality of manufactured drugs. The expected result is a steady increase in the quality of manufactured drugs, adherence of production personnel to the quality philosophy, creation of conditions for the growth of labour productivity of production personnel of pharmaceutical enterprises.

Quantification of Actaea racemosa L. (black cohosh) from some of its potential adulterants using qPCR and dPCR methods

The demand for popular natural health products (NHPs) such as Black Cohosh is increasing considerably, which in turn challenges quality assurance (QA) throughout the supply chain. To detect and quantify the target species present in a given NHP, DNA-based molecular techniques such as Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR) are standard tools in the food and pathogen testing industries. There is a gap in the literature concerning validated quantitative PCR methods for botanicals that can be utilized for QA and good manufacturing practices. The objective of this study is to develop an efficient quantification method using qPCR and dPCR techniques for the detection and quantification of Actaea racemosa (Black cohosh) NHPs from its potential adulterants. These developed methods are validated for applicability on commercial NHPs. Species-specific hydrolysis probe assays were designed to analyze the black cohosh NHPs using qPCR and dPCR techniques. The results confirmed that the developed qPCR and dPCR methods are highly precise for identifying and quantifying black cohosh NHPs, indicating their potential applicability in future routine industrial and laboratory testing. This enables a single qPCR test to determine not only the presence of a specific botanical, but also the amount when mixed with an adulterant.

Deep learning-augmented radiotherapy visualization with a cylindrical radioluminescence system

This study aims to demonstrate a low-cost camera-based radioluminescence imaging system (CRIS) for high-quality beam visualization that encourages accurate pre-treatment verifications on radiation delivery in external beam radiotherapy. To ameliorate the optical image that suffers from mirror glare and edge blurring caused by photon scattering, a deep learning model is proposed and trained to learn from an on-board electronic portal imaging device (EPID). Beyond the typical purposes of an on-board EPID, the developed system maintains independent measurement with co-planar detection ability by involving a cylindrical receptor. Three task-aware modules are integrated into the network design to enhance its robustness against the artifacts that exist in an EPID running at the cine mode for efficient image acquisition. The training data consists of various designed beam fields that were modulated via the multi-leaf collimator (MLC). Validation experiments are performed for five regular fields ranging from 2 × 2 cm2 to 10 × 10 cm2 and three clinical IMRT cases. The captured CRIS images are compared to the high-quality images collected from an EPID running at the integration-mode, in terms of gamma index and other typical similarity metrics. The mean 2%/2 mm gamma pass rate is 99.14% (range between 98.6% and 100%) and 97.1% (ranging between 96.3% and 97.9%), for the regular fields and IMRT cases, respectively. The CRIS is further applied as a tool for MLC leaf-end position verification. A rectangular field with introduced leaf displacement is designed, and the measurements using CRIS and EPID agree within 0.100 mm ± 0.072 mm with maximum of 0.292 mm. Coupled with its simple system design and low-cost nature, the technique promises to provide viable choice for routine quality assurance in radiation oncology practice.

The Potential of Iodine and Iron Double-Fortified Salt Compared with Iron-Fortified Staple Foods to Increase Population Iron Status

The potential of double-fortified salt (DFS) to improve population iron status is compared with the potential of iron-fortified wheat flour, maize flour, rice grains, and milk products. The potential for a positive impact on iron status is based on reported efficacy studies, consumption patterns, the extent of industrialization, and whether there are remaining technical issues with the fortification technologies. Efficacy studies with DFS, and with iron-fortified wheat flour, maize flour, and rice, have all reported good potential to improve population iron status. Iron-fortified milk powder has shown good impact in young children. When these foods are industrially fortified in modern, automated facilities, with high-level quality control and assurance practices, high-quality raw materials, and a wide population coverage, all vehicles have good potential to improve iron status. Relative to other fortification vehicles, fortification practices with wheat flour are the most advanced and iron-fortified wheat flour has the highest potential for impact in the short- to medium-term in countries where wheat flour is consumed as a staple. Liquid milk has the least potential, mainly because an acceptable iron fortification technology has not yet been developed. Maize is still predominantly milled in small-scale local mills and, although the extruded rice premix technology holds great promise, it is still under development. Salt has a proven record as an excellent vehicle for iodine fortification and has demonstrated good potential for iron fortification. However, technical issues remain with DFS and further studies are needed to better understand and avoid color formation and iron-catalyzed iodine losses in both high- and low-quality salts under different storage conditions. There is currently a risk that the introduction of DFS may jeopardize the success of existing salt iodization programs because the addition of iron may increase iodine losses and cause unacceptable color formation.

Online psychotherapy in times of the corona pandemic

HintergrundDie Prävalenz psychischer Erkrankungen in der Bevölkerung ist während der Coronapandemie aufgrund der mit ihr einhergehenden Belastungen enorm gestiegen. Umso wichtiger ist es, das psychotherapeutische Versorgungsangebot offen zu halten, auch in Zeiten, in denen notwendig ist, den sozialkörperlichen Kontakt einzuschränken. Damit wurden Psychotherapeuten ad hoc damit konfrontiert, ihr traditionelles Behandlungssetting zu erweitern und Fernhandlungen anzubieten.FragestellungWelche digitalen Behandlungsoptionen stehen Psychotherapeuten – auch vor dem Hintergrund gesetzlicher Regelungen – seit der Pandemie zur Verfügung? In welchem Ausmaß wurde die Video- bzw. telefonbasierte Psychotherapie genutzt? Welche Erfahrungen haben Psychotherapeuten mit digitalen Settings gemacht? Und wie ist die aktuelle Studienlage hinsichtlich der Effektivität und therapeutischen Allianz im Video(telefonie)-Setting zu beurteilen? Wie kann es gelingen, die eigene therapeutische Methode auf dieses neue Setting bei verschiedenen Patientengruppen (Kinder, Jugendliche, Erwachsene) anzupassen?MethodenDiese Fragen werden anhand einer Literaturrecherche sowie klinischer Überlegungen beantwortet.ErgebnisseEin Großteil der Psychotherapeuten hat sich sehr schnell auf Fernbehandlungen eingestellt, was der Gesetzgeber durch entsprechende Lockerungen bestehender Regelungen unterstützt hat, um in der pandemischen Krise sowohl bereits in Psychotherapie befindliche Patienten als auch neue Patienten ohne physischen Kontakt weiterbehandeln zu können. Es zeigte sich in Befragungsstudien, dass Psychotherapeuten die Wirksamkeit dieses neuen Settings geringer einschätzen als das traditionelle Setting.DiskussionFundierte Fortbildungen sind notwendig, um Psychotherapeuten in Theorie, Praxis und Selbsterfahrung für ein qualitätssicherndes Arbeiten im Video(telefonie)-Setting zu schulen.

Access to Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Maine Emergency Departments

Introduction: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is an essential tool in emergency medicine. We evaluated access to bedside ultrasound machines and characterized POCUS use in Maine emergency departments (EDs). Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional electronic survey of all ED medical directors in Maine. The survey included questions on ED characteristics, access to ultrasound machines, POCUS use patterns, POCUS administration, and barriers to use. Results: Thirty-four EDs were identified, and 24 medical directors completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 71%. EDs were predominantly small and rural. Only 21% identified as urban, and 54% reported less than 20 000 annual visits. Surveys showed that 88% of EDs had immediate access to a bedside ultrasound machine in the ED. Also, 76% used ultrasound guidance to place more than 75% of internal jugular central venous catheters, while 24% used ultrasound to place less than 10% of catheters. Of EDs with ultrasound access, 90% had hospital privileges for providers, 71% had a credentialing process, 52% had quality assurance processes, and 48% had a designated ultrasound director. Discussion: Compared to other states, Maine EDs were lower-volume and more rural but had similar access to ultrasound machines. Previous studies showed poor adherence to national guidelines for ultrasound quality assurance practices and provider credentialing. Our results demonstrate that this issue is ongoing. Conclusions: Maine’s predominantly rural EDs have excellent access to ultrasound machines. Areas for improvement in POCUS use and administration were identified, including enhancing quality assurance practices, boosting provider credentialing, and increasing the use of ultrasound guidance for vascular access.