Surgeon Outcomes

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Development of a framework for the delivery of Surgeon-specific outcome data to inform patients regarding surgical quality in gastro-intestinal cancer surgery

  • IRAS ID

    192108

  • Contact name

    George B. Hanna

  • Contact email

    g.hanna@imperial.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Imperial College London

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 6 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    II. OBJECTIVES
    1. To establish the level of patient understanding of surgeon-specific data as it is presented currently.
    2. To define the surgeon-specific outcomes that are of interest to patients and to rank these in terms of relative importance.
    3. To generate a patient-centered framework for the presentation of surgeon-specific data in a manner than is understandable by patients.

    III. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE
    In 2013, the publication of Surgeon specific outcomes generated much discussion in the national press and much debate regarding the validity of the published results amongst the surgical community. These results were predominately presented as a measure of case volume and in-hospital mortality for the previous year. Surgeons are typically committed to measurement and critical analysis of their own surgical outcomes and open reporting of their personal results is a logical extension of this. However given the small sample size studies, many surgical bodies felt this may lead the public to misleading conclusions and wrongly characterize good surgeons as under-performing. The provision of more robust data is essential to allow patients to be accurately informed regarding their treating surgeon. However, previously no study has assessed the influence of the quantity, quality and method of presentation of surgeon specific data upon patient understanding.

  • REC name

    North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    15/NW/0844

  • Date of REC Opinion

    27 Oct 2015

  • REC opinion

    Further Information Favourable Opinion