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Database models expected outcomes for specific patient populations
BOSTON — A new database being used in the United States has been designed to reduce costly surgeries by predicting outcomes for patients in a unique or original population, according to a presenter at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting, here.
Matthew J. McGirt, MD, of Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates, presented data from the National Neurosurgery Quality and Outcomes Database. The national program tracks the quality of surgical care for common neurosurgical procedures to reduce wasteful surgeries and costs and find patterns to avoid unnecessary surgeries. The database also provides practicing groups, hospitals and patients with an immediate infrastructure for analyzing and reporting the quality of neurological care, he said.
“The idea is that we can have decision and support tools for the surgeons and the patient,” McGirt said.
Matthew J. McGirt
Since its inception, more than 10,125 spine surgery patients have been enrolled in the database with 37 sites with 236 surgeons from 29 U.S. states participating. He said 78% of the patients have a 1-year follow-up in the program.
McGirt said the database can model the expected outcomes for specific patient populations. For example, he said the database shows that 12% of patients reported no benefits from lumbar spine surgery. He said this variability means that about 1 in 12 of the reported patients did not get anything from the surgery. — by Robert Linnehan
Reference:
McGirt MJ. Paper #109. Presented at: Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting; Oct. 18-22, 2014; Boston.
Disclosure: McGirt receives grants from DePuy and Stryker and is a consultant for DePuy and Trans1.