Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
Vol.27 No.4 2011 (182-186)
Hideshi Tomita, Fukiko Ichida, Kisaburo Sakamoto, Hirohiko Shiraishi, Naomi Izumida
Committee for the Board Certification System of the Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Japan
Abstract
Background: The Japanese Society of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Society (JSPCCS), introduced a new training system for the board certified pediatric cardiologist in 2008.
Aim: To analyze the current status of board certified teaching hospitals.
Method: We analyzed the distribution of teaching hospitals, the full-time pediatric cardiologists, and the number of patients in each hospital from the application data of teaching hospitals that have been certified in 2010.
Results: There are 45 boards certified teaching hospitals and 36 hospital groups that include 93 in-group hospitals. Excluding one prefecture, each prefecture has at least one teaching hospital. The number of teaching hospitals and full-time pediatric cardiologists in each prefecture ranged 0-18 (median, 2; mode, 2) and 0-113 (8; 4), respectively. Populations younger than 15 years old for one hospital and for one full-time pediatric cardiologist ranged from 25,333 to 385,500 (median, 120,889) and 8,444 to 84,667 (32,000), respectively. The number of full-time pediatric cardiologists, beds for pediatrics, patients admitted per one year complicated by pediatric cardiac diseases, examinations of echocardiography, exercise stress test, and 24 hour ECG ranged as follows: 1-17 (4), 5-386 (54), 39-1,210 (123), 0-950 (70), 200-7,848 (1,200), 0-2,173 (30), and 7-2,509 (71), respectively.
Conclusion: With considerable variations in the of background properties among teaching hospitals and hospital groups, effective management of hospital groups will be essential in order to maintain the quality of training of candidates for board certified pediatric cardiologists.