Results
Safety, performance and outcomes are closely analysed in cardiac surgery and thoracic surgery.
The quality assessment process begins with data for each patient being entered into a database. Each database has clear data governance and management procedures for the collection of confidential information and ethical management of that data. Within the governance of these databases, data is analysed and outlying results are identified. Those results are then communicated back to the surgeons and hospitals involved in the care of the patients in the database. The analysis of results is repeated at regular intervals.
These processes ensures that overall performance of surgeons, teams, hospitals and health systems are checked and improvements made. It means that Dr Cole’s performance as a surgeon is analysed regularly and compared to the performance of other surgeons within Queensland and Australia, and his results are either in line with, or above the expected performance.
There are several databases that collect data and analyse results. They are listed below.
QCOR
The primary database for cardiac and thoracic surgical procedures performed in Queensland is through the Queensland Cardiac Outcomes Registry.
Reports including results are published here.
Dr Cole is Chair of the Cardiothoracic Database Steering Commmittee for QCOR.
ANZSCTS
Once data is collected through QCOR it is submitted to the National Database, run by ANZSCTS.
The ANZSCTS annual reports that include results can be found here.
Dr Cole is a member of the National Steering Committee for the ANZSCTS Database.
ACOR
Credentialling of individual TAVI Implanters and of TAVI implantation sites is performed through ACOR. Data about TAVI patients and their outcomes is analysed by ACOR. Dr Cole’s TAVI performance and credentialling as a TAVI implanter is monitored by ACOR.
Information about the ACOR TAVI registry is here.