Australian association adopts data analysis tool to track and minimise complications after surgery

The Australasian Gynaecological Endoscopy & Surgery Society (AGES), which has a membership of over 600 gynaecological specialists in Australia and New Zealand, is adopting a new web-based analysis tool which will help surgeons collect much more data about their patients and surgical outcomes, and show how their patients are doing compared to those of their colleagues.

By recording much more detailed information about patients and surgical procedures than is currently the case, the analysis tool will ultimately help surgeons minimise complications after surgery by seeing in real time what is working and what is not across all procedures recorded in the system. This will help make surgery safer and reduce the need for some patients to be taken back to the operating room or endure additional treatments to manage postsurgical adverse events.

The tool, called SurgicalPerformance and devised by a team of practising gynaecological surgeons, engineers and software developers, allows surgeons to record a wealth of information about the patient and the procedure and to track any complications after surgery if they occur. All data is held anonymously within the database, and although surgeons can view their own data, they can only see aggregated and anonymised data from other surgeons. This allows them to see how they are performing against other surgeons as a whole and review any differences, and change their approach and/or advice to patients if needed. The tool is designed to provide confidential feedback for surgeons’ learning and education.

Another benefit of recording much more information in the SurgicalPerformance database than surgeons generally do currently is that it also provides a concrete record that can be relied upon should the surgeon’s actions be called into question at a later date.

“We’re delighted to be partnering with AGES to bring the SurgicalPerformance tool to more gynaecological surgeons in Australia and New Zealand and to help improve surgical outcomes across the board for patients.” said SurgicalPerformance founder and practising gynaecological surgeon Professor Andreas Obermair.

AGES members will start using SurgicalPerformance from 1 January 2017.

Source: News Business Australia

Staff Writer