Transcript Ultrasound Guidelines Council: Certification

Ultrasound Guidelines
Council: Certification
Lisa A. Kriese-Anderson
Auburn University
Purpose
Certification of field (scanning) and lab
(interpreting) technicians serves to:
– Ensure the highest quality ultrasound images
and interpretations for rump and backfat,
ribeye area and percent intramuscular fat
Adds additional credibility to ultrasound process
Ensures highest quality data to breed associations
for genetic evaluation
Certification
Two types of certification
– Field
Allows technician to measure cattle, save images
and send to centralized processing lab
– Lab
Interpret images field technicians send into
centralized processing labs
A technician can be both field and lab
certified
Certification is valid for 2 years
Why Certification Every 2 Years?
Why must previously certified technicians
continue to go through certification?
– To ensure images continue to be of highest
quality to meet the needs of the beef industry
– Potential opportunities for continuing
education
Developments in industry, hardware, software,
trouble shooting
Field Certification
Composed of 3 parts:
– Written exam
– Image quality
– Accuracy of measurement
Field Certification
Until 2005, one field certification held each year
– Generally held at a university setting
– Chutes are set up serially and 20 head of finished and
breeding cattle are measured by each technician –
twice
– Technicians measure and record images for rump fat,
rib fat, ribeye area and intramuscular fat
– Technicians turn in images at the end of the scanning
session
– Technicians are certifying for a particular scanning
system.
Field Certification
Cattle are also scanned by reference
technicians (2 per certification)
Cattle are harvested and carcass data
collected – including ether extract
analyses
– Generally half of the cattle are harvested
Reference technician and carcass data
are combined to serve as official results
Field Certification
Field technician images are interpreted by
reference interpreter technicians
Interpreted for
– Image quality
Acceptable
Marginal
Rejected
– Image accuracy
Field Certification
Written exam
– Must have a score of 70/100 to pass
Image quality
– Must have 80% image acceptance rate for
each trait to pass
Accuracy
– Certification statistics of SEP, SER, bias and
correlation are determined for each trait
Field Certification
SEP = Standard error of prediction
– How precise – compared to the official measurements
are the technicians’ measurements?
SER = Standard error of repeatability
– How repeatable are the technicians’ measurements?
Bias = How close to the official results are the
technicians’ measurements? Under- or overestimate
Correlation = Correlation between technicians’
measurement and official measurement
Field Certification
Trait
SEP
SER
Bias
Corr
Rump/Back Fat
≤0.1
≤0.1
≤0.1
≥0.85
Ribeye Area
≤1.2
≤1.2
≤1.2
≥0.80
Percent IMF
≤1.2
≤1.2
≤0.7
≥0.70
Field Certification
Becoming certified is not automatic
– For new technicians, failure rate is 33 to 50%
– For previously certified technicians, failure
rate is 10 to 15%
Once pass certification, good for 2 years
Lab Certification
Technicians wishing to interpret images must
– Pass written exam
– Quality classify images
– Accurately interpret images
Technicians will be certified to interpret a specific
image type (Aloka, Classic, Sono Vet 2000, etc)
Lab certifications can be administered at the
various centralized processing labs or in
conjunction with field certification
Seasoned Technicians
For field technicians who have passed at
least 2 consecutive field certifications and
scan a minimum of 1500 head/year
– A random sample of images (3 herds; 20
head ea) can be selected from images sent
into centralized processing labs
– Certified lab technicians will score the images
for quality. Must meet standards for image
quality acceptance
Ultrasound Industry
Certification is a highly rigorous process
– If you could be a fly on the wall during certifications
High pressure
Professional
Technicians are dedicated to doing a good job
– Their livelihood depends on it w/large investments in
equipment
Ultrasound industry is providing data for EPD
estimations