According to the Spring issue of the ASE's Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease Council News, interesting things are afoot:
The council has developed a Normative Database working group... to develop consensus methods for standardization of measures acquired during the pediatric echocardiogram with a long-term goal of creating a normative database of universally available standardized z-score calculations for the pediatric and young adult population.
I have toyed around a bit with making a few z-score calculators for pediatric echo universally available, and in the process one thing became clear: we are a long way from a consensus on z-scores. And, while enormously useful, the z-score calculators by themselves seem to only scratch the surface of what is now possible.
What is truly fascinating to me is the idea of a universal normative database. While I have yet to implement such a design through ParameterZ.com, what I have learned is: technology is not a barrier to creating an online pediatric echo reference values database.
What would be really cool is to marry the reference values with something that would...
... allow participants to create and generate web-based, secure echo reports that are standardized and complete.
(That is the ASE's promised echo toolbox reporting tool).
I have been contemplating the concept of web based pediatric echo z-scores and standardized echo reports for some time.
I have to say that I am excited and eager to see what more and greater minds come up with.
