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Temporal Trends in the Utilization of Echocardiography in Ontario, 2001 to 2009

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The purpose of this study was to examine utilization and growth in echocardiography among the general population of Ontario between 2001 and 2009. The age- and sex-adjusted rates of echocardiography grew from 39.1 per 1,000 persons in 2001 to 59.9 per 1,000 persons in 2009, for an annual rate of increase of 5.5%. Repeat echocardiograms increased at a rate of 10.6% per year and accounted for 25.3% of all procedures in 2009 as compared to 18.5% in 2002. While significant increases in echocardiography utilization were observed, opportunities may exist to improve the clinical utility of the echocardiograms performed in Ontario.

Key Words

cardiovascular imaging
echocardiography
resource utilization

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The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The results and conclusions are those of the authors, and should not be attributed to any of the funding agencies. This project was supported by operating grants from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Blecker was supported in part by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Grant 5T32HL007024. Dr. Lee is supported by a Clinician-Scientist Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Alter is supported by a Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. Dr. Tu is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research and a Career Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. All other authors have reported they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose.