Report from the Audit and QI Committee March 2018 - Jon Boyle

01 March 2018 (Last updated: 21 Dec 2023 15:27)

This is my first report as Chairman.  I would like to start by thanking Ian Loftus for the excellent job he has done over the last 4 years. It has not been a easy period for the membership and Ian has steered us through the initial period of surgeon level outcome reporting with considerable skill, understanding and compassion. I would like to reassure the membership that we have no plans to increase the amount of published surgeon level data and the Committee is of the view that any new NVR data released into the public domain will be at unit level.

I have been fortunate to inherit an excellent team at the Clinical Effectiveness Unit at the Royal College of Surgeons, with whom I am very much looking forward to working with in the coming years.  I would also like to welcome Marcus Brookes who has joined the Committee in February.

There are a number of challenges facing the committee in the coming months. A number of the recommendations in the recently published GIRFT report specifically relate to data quality and the NVR. We will be working with GIRFT to drive improvements in both case ascertainment and data quality. Whilst data for AAA and carotid procedures is good, there is still plenty of room for improvement in case ascertainment for lower limb amputation, which remains only just over 50% and lower limb angioplasty, with three quarters of cases not being entered.

GIRFT is also keen to drive improvements to the delays from symptom to surgery for carotid endarterectomy and from AAA threshold to surgery.

Finally GIRFT has identified the need for a Quality Improvement Framework (QIF) for lower limb ischaemia. This important initiative will be taken forward by the Vascular Society Council.

We have seconded members of the MHRA to the Committee with a view to developing robust mechanisms for recording unique device identifiers  (UDIs) for implantable devices and we will be looking at ways of incorporating this information within the NVR.

In summary the priorities for my tenure are

1.    Improving data ascertainment and quality
2.    Driving improvements in the timelines to treatment for carotid and AAA surgery
3.    Reporting longer term outcome data for in particular AAA patients
4.    Developing a QIF for lower limb ischaemia
5.    Improving and modifying NVR datasets and investigate the possibility of recording unique device identifiers (UDIs) within the NVR.

Finally I would like to remind all members the deadline for submission for 2017 cases is 16th March 2018.
Mr Jon Boyle, Chairman of the Audit and QI Committee of the Vascular Society.

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