title: Radiology Cases in Pediatric Emergency Medicine: amplifying the benefits of performance improvement by sharing a hospital performance improvement program with the world via the Internet.
abstract: A hospital performance improvement project to improve the quality of x-ray interpretations in the emergency department is described. To amplify the benefits of this project, a multimedia computer program containing this information was created and distributed via the mail and over the internet. Users are encouraged to copy the program disks and distribute them to others (no fees or royalties). The advantages of this method over conventional journals in print are described. Successful distribution of this program, known as Radiology Cases in Pediatric Emergency Medicine (RCPEM), and positive feedback from users, stimulated the continuation of this project, which has now released its fifth volume with two more volumes planned. RCPEM (a hospital performance improvement project) now continues to expand as the knowledge gained is disseminated over the internet to improve the quality of care rendered to children all over the world. Amplifying the benefits of other performance improvement projects can be done in a similar manner.
authors.affiliation: Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, Department of Pediatrics, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, USA.
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D019212:Multimedia; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000592:standards*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011643:Publishing; D011871:Radiology / Q000592:standards*; D012984:Software; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*