In 2005, the Canadian Society of Echocardiography and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society jointly published guidelines regarding the provision of echocardiographic services in Canada. Those guidelines, which were reviewed by a diverse group of echocardiography experts, addressed all components of service delivery and were intended to ensure the utility, reliability and safety of echocardiographic examinations. In 2012, the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario developed standards, taking into account advances in technology and clinical applications.

Following the original publication of this document, the Cardiac Care Network of Ontario, now CorHealth Ontario, established an Echocardiography Quality Improvement (EQI) Program to help facilities achieve the Standards. That process provided opportunities to assess the applicability, clarity and clinical relevance of the Standards. Those insights, together with very valuable feedback from physicians and sonographers undertaking the process, has allowed us to further refine the Standards to both augment their relevance to the practice of echocardiography, and the validity of the review process.

An update was undertaken early in 2015, and again in 2021. The current Standards for Provision of Echocardiography in Ontario have been refreshed to provide greater clarification and align content to reflect current practice.

This document specifies required practices for adult Transthoracic, Stress and Transesophageal echocardiography.

The Standards document can be accessed here.