Welcome to CASE
CASE is the Consortium for the Accreditation of Sonographic Education and consists of four Member Organisations:
British Medical Ultrasound Society (BMUS)
College of Radiographers (CoR)
Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM)
Society of Vascular Technology of Great Britain and Ireland (SVT)
For further information on each of the member organisations, please click on the logos to take you to their individual websites.
What Do We Do?
In 1993, CASE was formed through the common desire to ensure that the education and training of sonographers in the United Kingdom was delivered at the highest level. All members share common concerns that standards of service provision and education are developed in parallel with increasing demand and improving technology. All members strive to create an environment in which education and training is maximised. This will make validation and accreditation to be as robust and straightforward as possible.
CASE's philosophy is to promote best ultrasound practise through the accreditation of those training programmes that develop safe and competent ultrasound practitioners. This should be delivered at postgraduate level. The majority of its activities relate to supporting those Institutions that offer, or wish to offer courses leading to the award of a Masters, Postgraduate Diploma/Certificate in Medical or clinical Ultrasound.
In addition to offering accreditation of new, and re-accreditation of established, ultrasound education programmes CASE undertakes annual monitoring of the courses it has accredited. The information obtained is fed back to the Institutions both on an individual basis and via the annual CASE report.
Each member organisation is unique and has its own obligations to its membership and its own agenda while CASE brings them together to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas in which shared views may be synthesised, and thus inform education and training programmes.
CASE Principles
The following four principles were agreed by the Member Organisations and are adhered to when considering any level of accreditation:
• Reporting should not be separated from scanning
• Scanning is a ‘dynamic’ investigation in which the acquisition of suitable images and assessment of them is entirely operator-dependent at the time of the scan. Deficiencies in acquisition cannot be rectified by involving a more skilled practitioner at a later stage. Assessment and interpretation of saved images is recognised as sub-optimal practice although, as with all image interpretation, dual reporting can be helpful in increasing specificity;
• The risk of patient harm and consequent litigation against any healthcare organisation providing a poor quality service is very high and therefore the need for competence at the point of scanning is paramount;
• Workforce modelling and the development of innovative training routes to meet the demand for sonography services should demonstrate increased efficiency of provision and effectiveness in delivery of diagnosis and treatment to patients.
So which Courses are Accredited?
A Directory of all CASE Accredited Courses is published and updated annually. It contains standardised information on all UK ultrasound education programmes that hold current CASE accreditation.
CASE Course Directory
CASE Chair: Gill Dolbear
CASE Co-ordinator: Sally Hawking
Contact address: c/o The Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine
230 Tadcaster Road, York, YO24 1ES
Tel: 01904 610821 E-mail: case@ipem.ac.uk
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