Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Certification”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 793 records · Page 44Linked to original sources
PubMed2005

Critical care medicine training and certification for emergency physicians.

Demand for critical care services is increasing. Unless the supply of intensivists increases, critically ill patients will not have access to intensivists. Recent critical care society recommendations include increased graduate medical education support and expansion of the J-1 visa waiver program for foreign medical graduates. This article proposes additional recommendations, based on strengthening the relationship between emergency medicine and critical care medicine. Critical care is a continuum that includes out-of-hospital, emergency department (ED), and ICU care teams. Both emergency medicine and critical care medicine require expertise in treating life-threatening acute illness, with many critically ill patients often presenting first to the ED. Increased patient volumes and acuity have resulted in longer ED lengths of stay and more critical care delivery in the ED. However, the majority of critical care medicine fellowships do not accept emergency medicine residents, and those who do successfully complete a fellowship do not have access to a US certification examination in critical care medicine. Despite these barriers, interest in critical care medicine training among emergency physicians is increasing. Dual emergency medicine- and critical care medicine-trained physicians will not only help alleviate the intensivist shortage but also strengthen critical care delivery in the ED and facilitate coordination at the ED-ICU interface. We therefore propose that all accreditation bodies work cooperatively to create a route to critical care medicine certification for emergency physicians who complete a critical care fellowship.

Certification↗
PubMed2005

Access to death certificates: what should research ethics committees require for approval?

PURPOSE: To present and discuss the reactions of research ethics committees (RECs) in a number of countries when asked for approval of a study requiring access to death certificates to identify the physicians signing the certificates and to send them a four-page questionnaire about medical decisions made at the patient's end-of-life that could possibly have hastened death. METHODS: A simple questionnaire were sent to the responsible national investigator in an international study (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland) asking about the interactions between the national research group and the national/regional REC(s). RESULTS: Different laws or guidelines were used by the RECs. Denmark, the Netherlands, and Switzerland did not require an application to a REC. In Australia and Sweden, the RECs wanted changes in the research protocol, and one national research group had to refrain from publishing its results because the attrition rate became too high, probably due to the required changes in the protocol. RECOMMENDATIONS: Generally, similar demands from all RECs in relation to one project are strongly desirable. In epidemiological research, in which voluntary completion of an anonymous questionnaire demonstrates consent, additional prior informed consent about being approached should not be required.

Death Certificates↗
PubMed2006

Certification of vascular centers - a project of the German Society for Vascular Surgery.

OBJECTIVES: Due to the progress vascular medicine has made in conventional vascular surgery, endovascular procedures, and conservative therapy close, interdisciplinary cooperation is required. In order to assure the contextual and structural quality of vascular centers, the German Society for Vascular Surgery established a list of criteria for certification of each interdisciplinary vascular center. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between July 2002 and December 2005, 77 centers have submitted a written application and have been audited by the commission for quality assurance of the German Society for Vascular Surgery, 59 vascular centers were certified for a period of 3 years with one center in each in Austria and in Switzerland, 13 centers were not certified (16.8%), and the applications of 5 centers are still pending. This analysis is based on 57 German certified vascular centers. RESULTS: Each center treats a median of 1149 inpatients (11% of these are emergency admissions) and 2,159 outpatients per year. Sixty percent of the patients treated have an arterial disease. All centers have vascular surgery and radiology departments. In 11 out of 57 centers, angiology services are offered in cooperation with affiliated physicians. Each vascular center has an average of 4.2 vascular surgeons, 3 radiologists and 1 angiologist. All centers offer radiological and ultrasound diagnostics (CT angiography in 100%, MRT in 95%, duplex sonography in 100%). Each clinic executes a median of 521 (233-1436) arterial operations and 263 (37-1055) arterial interventions. In addition, they execute varicose surgeries (n=217), shunt applications/revisions (n=58), minor amputations (n=57) and major amputations (n=42). They conduct 338 (92-3606) conservative therapies per year (POAD, diabetic foot, phlebothrombosis, chronic venous insufficiency). CONCLUSIONS: The certification of interdisciplinary vascular centers is a new approach to assure the contextual and structural quality of interdisciplinary vascular centers.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed2005

Accreditation and certification in dermatologic surgery.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is an agency that accredits residency-training programs, thus assuring the public of the highest-quality medical education in the United States. Only those residents who complete ACGME-accredited programs qualify for certification by an American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)-sponsored board. Certification by the ABMS assures the public that a physician has become competent in a defined body of medical knowledge. Because medicine continuously evolves, the ACGME and the ABMS sponsor a process by which new specialties or subspecialties can be defined, programs accredited, and physicians certified. Procedural dermatology is a surgical subspecialty of dermatology that includes cutaneous oncology (along with Mohs micrographic surgery), cutaneous reconstructive surgery, and cosmetic surgery of the skin. The recent approval by the ACGME to accredit procedural dermatology fellowships establishes the specialty of dermatology as an organ-based body of knowledge that includes medical, pathologic, and surgical skills.

Accreditation↗
PubMed2001

The ergonomics of flight management systems: fixing holes in the cockpit certification net.

Recent air traffic control regulations mandate the installation of computer-based flight management systems in airliners across Europe. Integrating and certifying add-on cockpit systems is a long and costly process, which in its current form cannot meaningfully address ergonomics aspects. Two levels of problems occur: add-on systems carry many "classic" HCI failures, which could easily be addressed with modified certification requirements. Further, adding new technology changes practice, creates new skill and knowledge demands and produces new forms of error, which are more difficult to assess in advance. However, one innovative certification approach for add-on cockpit systems, based on the use of a representative population of user pilots, was found to be promising. This method minimizes the subjective bias of individual pilots in addition to defining pass/fail criteria in an operational environment.

Aviation↗
PubMed1998

Certification standards transfer: from committee to laboratory.

The ISO 9000 Standards series were developed to provide the international manufacturing industry with a framework to ensure purchased products meet quality criteria. Section 4 of ISO 9001, Quality System Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production, Installation and Servicing, contains 20 aspects of a quality system that must be addressed by an organization in order to receive ISO 9001 certification. This concept is extended to the clinical laboratory, where a quality system program establishes for the customer (patient/clinician) that the purchased product (requested information on a submitted specimen-test result) meets established quality norms. In order to satisfy the customer, the providing organization must have policies and procedures in place that ensure a quality product, and be certified. To become certified the organization must, through an inspection process, demonstrate to an independent accrediting agency that it meets defined standards. In the United States, the government through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) 1988 established quality standards for the clinical laboratory. The College of American Pathologists (CAP), through its Laboratory Accreditation Program (LAP), serves as an independent agency that certifies that laboratories meet standards. To demonstrate the applicability of an established clinical laboratory accreditation program to ISO 9001 certification, the standards and checklists of CLIA 1988 and the CAP LAP will be examined to determine their conformance to ISO 9001, Section 4.

Certification↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Development and outcomes of the multiple-choice format national certification examination in nurse-midwifery and midwifery.

The national certification examination in nurse-midwifery and midwifery now is offered exclusively in the multiple-choice format. The strategies used to develop equivalent examination forms are described. The manner of criterion-referenced standard setting is explained. Outcomes of the first five multiple-choice examination forms include an aggregate first-time failure rate of 8.3%. Multiple- and logistic-regression analyses indicate that examination scores of African-American and Hispanic ethnic candidates, and older candidates, are lower with regard to statistical significance; however, these differences are too modest to be of practical significance. No substantive relationship was observed between any demographic or academic variable and the probability of passing the examination. The experience gained by the ACNM Certification Council during development, administration, and evaluation of these first five multiple-choice examination forms has provided strong support for the transition to multiple-choice testing for the assessment of entry into practice of this competency-based profession.

Certification↗
PubMed2002

A review of approaches to quality assurance of veterinary systems for health-status certification.

Regarding national and international trade of animals and animal products, certificates are required to document specific health levels. The credibility of such certificates depends on the quality of the data used to establish the status. Credibility also depends on the quality of the design and protocols used in the data-gathering process (i.e. on the quality of the surveillance-and-monitoring systems (SMS) and on the quality of the veterinary administrative systems (VAdminS)). The major requirements for the assessment of the SMS and VAdminS are: objectivity, accuracy, transparency, practicality, quantitative in nature. To assess the quality of SMS and VAdminS, systems analysis might provide a suitable framework. Systems analysis requires the identification and description of all components of the system-how they interact with each other and with other systems. Graphical methods (e.g. fault trees) are available to support this procedure. To assess the quality of SMS, scoring systems have been suggested. Their main weakness is the inherent subjectiveness. Alternatively, performance indicators (PI) could be used. For the assessment of VAdminS, questionnaires have been developed and applied. Their main limitations are that they focus on the input rather than on the output and that they are purely descriptive in nature. Thus, comparisons between countries are almost impossible. Semi-quantitative questionnaires using scores now are being developed and tested, although their limitations will be similar to those mentioned above. Another approach is the use of risk assessment including standardised data files assembled by countries volunteering to be assessed. This was applied successfully by the European Union (EU) in the geographic risk assessment for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). In general, the publication and documentation of veterinary systems needs to be encouraged to make them accessible to peer review.

Animal Diseases↗
PubMed1999

Certification in infection control and epidemiology-a celebration of 15 years!

Certification in infection control has been available since 1983. In this, the 15th anniversary of the Certified in Infection Control examination, it seems appropriate to examine how the program was developed, how it has evolved, and future opportunities for Certification in Infection Control and Epidemiology. This article was written to provide a brief history and an update on the current status of the Certified in Infection Control program.

Certification↗
PubMed1992

Scoring and setting pass/fail standards for an essay certification examination in nurse-midwifery.

Examination for certification or licensure of health professionals (credentialing) in the United States is almost exclusively of the multiple choice format. The certification examination for entry into the practice of the profession of nurse-midwifery has, however, used a modified essay format throughout its twenty-year history. The examination has recently undergone a revision in the method for score interpretation and for pass/fail decision-making. The revised method, described in this paper, has important implications for all health professional credentialing agencies which use modified essay, oral or practical methods of competency assessment. This paper describes criterion-referenced scoring, the process of constructing the essay items, the methods for assuring validity and reliability for the examination, and the manner of standard setting. In addition, two alternative methods for increasing the validity of the pass/fail decision are evaluated, and the rationale for decision-making about marginal candidates is described.

Certification↗
PubMed1999

Colorectal cancer deaths as determined by expert committee and from death certificate: a comparison. The Minnesota Study.

For deaths during the first 13 years of follow-up of the Minnesota Colon Cancer Control Study, an expert committee using numerous medical documents, and a nosologist using only the death certificate independently determined whether colorectal cancer caused the death and, if not, whether the disease was present at death. Deaths due to colorectal cancer numbered 318 according to the nosologist and 323 according to the committee, a discrepancy of 1.5%, which is similar in magnitude to that in three previous studies. The nosologist and committee agreed that colorectal cancer caused the death in each of 290 individual cases; they disagreed widely on the number of deaths from other causes but with colorectal cancer. If it is important to know only the gross number of deaths from colorectal cancer, then the death certificate alone appears to be sufficiently accurate; if it is important to know the cause of death of individual subjects or the number dying from other causes but with colorectal cancer, then the expert committee method provides more accurate information.

Aged↗
PubMed1997

[Medical certificate of neonatal death].

A specific neonatal death certificate has been put into use in France since April 1997. It must be completed for any infants born alive and deceased between 0 and 27 days. Its content is presented together with the results of an evaluation of its use performed during a 3 month period in 1996. This certificate is aimed to improve the mortality statistics of the neonatal period, thus helping to better define the priorities in the medical care and prevention fields.

Cause of Death↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Survey of regional anesthetic practice among French residents at time of certification.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A survey of anesthesia practice was conducted among French residents in anesthesia at the end of their training. This study was performed mainly to evaluate the residents' experience in peripheral nerve blocks. METHODS: Two short clinical cases were proposed to all French residents during a telephone interview immediately before their certification. The first described the case of a young asthmatic patient admitted for an elbow fracture. The second described an elderly woman with severe aortic stenosis admitted for a supracondylar fracture of the femur. A questionnaire had been prepared and was filled in during the interview. Each resident was asked to answer according to the actual choice he or she would have made. For both cases, when general anesthesia was chosen first, the next question was to discuss which regional anesthesia would be used if general anesthesia had to be discarded. In that way, the practical knowledge about most common peripheral nerve blocks learned during residency was investigated. RESULTS: Of 77 residents registered as being at the end of their residency, 8 were on either sabbatical or maternity leave. Regional anesthesia was the first choice in 78% and 57% of cases for the first and second clinical cases, respectively. The regional anesthetic techniques chosen were axillary block (66%), interscalene block (31%), and intravenous regional anesthesia (3%) for case 1 and combined lumbar plexus and sciatic block (36%), epidural anesthesia (30%), single-shot spinal anesthesia (18%), and continuous spinal anesthesia (16%) for case 2. Throughout the residency of the group, 32 +/- 2 axillary blocks, 12 +/- 2 interscalene blocks (axillary vs interscalene, P < .0001), 21 +/- 3 femoral blocks, and 10 +/- 2 sciatic blocks (femoral vs sciatic, P < .0001) had been performed (mean +/- SEM). They had also performed 2.5 +/- 0.5 continuous spinal anesthesias and 17 +/- 3 intravenous regional anesthesias respectively. Upper extremity blocks were more often used during residency than lower extremity blocks (44 +/- 3 vs 31 +/- 4, P < .01). A peripheral nerve stimulator was routinely used by 83% of residents. CONCLUSION: French residents in anesthesiology at time of certification are better trained for peripheral nerve blocks of the upper extremity than for those of the lower extremity. Axillary plexus and femoral nerve block are the most widely used blocks, probably reflecting the techniques the most mastered among teachers. Finally, the extensive use of a peripheral nerve stimulator by residents is probably the result of the widespread use of this device by teachers in France.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Board certification of medical doctors and medical technologists in transfusion medicine in Japan.

The Japan Society of Blood Transfusion (JSBT) organized a Board for certification of medical doctors in Transfusion Medicine (Board certified medical doctors by the JSBT) and a Board for certification of medical technologists for transfusion medicine (qualified medical technologists in Transfusion Medicine). For certified medical doctors the JSBT co-ordinated with the Japanese Association of Medical Science and with the Japan Medical Association, and for qualified medical technologists the JSBT co-organized with the Japanese Society of Laboratory Medicine, the Japanese Association of Medical Technologist and the College of Clinical Pathology of Japan. By May 2001, 259 of the certified medical doctors and 875 of the qualified medical technologists have been certified and are participating actively to increase the level of transfusion practice at individual facilities.

Blood Transfusion↗
PubMed2005

Comparative advantage: the impact of ISO 14001 environmental certification on exports.

Relative to the enormous acceptance of the ISO 9000 quality standard, the ISO 14001 environmental management certification has been met with only moderate enthusiasm among industrial facilities. The literature on corporate motivation for ISO 14001 participation is relatively modest considering the enormous number of publications reviewing other aspects of its adoption and implementation. It would seem that the present "marketing" package supporting ISO environmental commitments does not seem to offer sufficiently persuasive incentives for increased sales, either domestically or internationally. While researchers assume that a higher export rate of companies is positively associated with higher ISO participation rates, there have been very few empirical studies that support this inference, and conclusions have not been based on data taken from importing countries orfrom a systematic evaluation of expressed corporate preference for products sold by ISO 14001 certified companies. The present study reports the results of a survey to firms in six countries that are Israel's leading trade partners, importing chemicals, textiles, and produce. The survey results confirm that while the international market still considers price and quality as the paramount factors in selection of suppliers, environmental management systems (EMS) are an important feature that is frequently taken into consideration. EMS certification appears to signify a supplier who is managing the business well and exhibiting ethical responsibility. The European market proved to be more environmentally conscious than those in other industrialized parts of the world. EMS offer a particularly valuable advantage for producers wishing to reach European markets. As policy-makers seek to expand the voluntary adoption of EMS, a clear advantage for exporters should be highlighted among national industries.

Certification↗
PubMed2003

Mind the gap: bridge methods to allocate multiple-race mothers in trend analyses of birth certificate data.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of proposed methods of redistributing multiple-race mothers to single-race categories when computing trend data from birth certificates. METHODS: Low birthweight and multiple (twin and higher-order) birth rates for California were calculated for non-Hispanic mothers from birth certificate data for 2000. Births to the 1.9% of mothers identified as multiple-race were reassigned to single-race groups according to 12 "bridging" methods. Bridge methods utilized population-based whole allocation, fractional allocation, and other methods, primarily depending on first race listed. RESULTS: For large race groups, there was little difference in low birthweight and multiple birth rates regardless of the bridge method employed. For smaller groups such as Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders and American Indians/Alaska Natives, there was substantial variation by bridge method in observed rates. CONCLUSIONS: Tracking trends in birth outcomes across the change in data collection will challenge public health researchers. This paper outlines advantages and disadvantages of various bridge methods.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

SI-traceable certification of Cu, Cr, Cd and Pb in sediment and fly ash candidate reference materials.

Many fields in environmental analytical chemistry deal with very low limits and thresholds as set by governmental legislations or transnational regulations. The need for the accuracy, comparability and traceability of analytical measurements in environmental analytical chemistry has significantly increased and total uncertainties are even asked for by accreditation bodies of environmental laboratories. This paper addresses achieving these goals to guarantee accuracy, quality control, quality assurance or validation of a method by means of certified reference materials. The assessment of analytical results in certified reference materials must be as accurate as possible and every single step has to be fully evaluated. This paper presents the SI-traceable certification of Cu, Cr, Cd and Pb contents in geological and environmentally relevant matrices (three sediments and one fly ash sample). Certification was achieved using isotope dilution (ID) ICPMS as a primary method of measurement. In order to reduce significantly the number of analytical steps and intermediate samples a multiple spiking approach was developed. The full methodology is documented and total uncertainty budgets are calculated for all certified values. A non-element specific sample digestion process was optimised. All wet chemical digestion methods examined resulted in a more or less pronounced amount of precipitate. It is demonstrated that these precipitates originate mainly from secondary formation of fluorides (essentially CaF2) and that their formation takes place after isotopic equilibration. The contribution to the total uncertainty of the final values resulting from the formation of such precipitates was in general < 0.1% for all investigated elements. Other sources of uncertainty scrutinised included the moisture content determination, procedural blank determination, cross-contamination from the different spike materials, correction for spectral interferences, instrumental background and deadtime effects, as well as the use of either certified values or IUPAC data in the IDMS equation. The average elemental content in the sediment samples was 30-130 micrograms g-1 for Pb, 0.5-3 micrograms g-1 for Cd and 50-70 micrograms g-1 for Cu. Cr was measured in one sample and was about 60 micrograms g-1. The concentrations in the fly ash sample were up to 2 orders of magnitude higher. Expanded uncertainty for the investigated elements was about 3% (coverae factor k = 2) except for Cr, (measured by high resolution ICPMS), for which the expanded uncertainty was about 7% (k = 2).

Air Pollution↗
PubMed1997

Evaluation of prenatal care information on birth certificates.

Misclassification frequently leads to bias in epidemiological studies, and causes concern for perinatal epidemiologists interested in using birth certificates as a data source. We used a maximum likelihood method to estimate the classification probabilities (conditional probabilities that indicate the probability of classification in a particular category, given the person's true category) of two data sources for a three-category outcome of prenatal care. The probability that women receiving adequate or inadequate care were correctly classified was estimated to be greater than 90%. The probability was much lower (< 35%) that women receiving intermediate care were correctly classified. The misclassification women from the intermediate category resulted in poor predictive values (< 70%) of women classified as receiving either adequate or inadequate care. Because of these findings, we combined the adequate and intermediate categories to form a two-category classification system. This revision resulted in higher positive predictive values (> 90%) with only a slightly lower classification probability (> 85%) for the combined category. We conclude that the degree of accuracy for a two-category classification of prenatal care based upon birth certificate information is acceptable, but we question the accuracy of indices of prenatal care with more than two categories.

Birth Certificates↗