MIDCABG registry: Share and compare on-line
MIDCABG registry: Share and compare on-line
Practitioners worldwide track data
There’s now an on-line registry for beating-heart minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting (MIDCABG) procedures http://www.heartnet.org/ midcab/reg istry/index.tcl. The database contains cases from reporting centers all over the world and presents overviews of patients’ progress before, after, and throughout the procedure. Once registered, surfers can access histories, preoperative interventions, and records of patients’ surgeries, including complications, discharge follow-up visits, and postoperative tests and interventions. Surgical nurses can click to one internal site that lists instruments and equipment unique to the procedure. Another tells how to prepare the patient and describes what goes on the day before and day of surgery.
Janis W. Richmond, RN, CNOR, a cardiovascular-thoracic specialist in the cardiac OR at Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, MD, assisted James D. Fonger, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Adventist in developing the registry. She expects nurses to e-mail her from those pages and share experiences.
Why wait to read a journal article?
The registry is a repository for MIDCABG information. "Cardio unit staffs can compare their outcomes data to that of others doing the procedure," says Richmond. "We hope we can cut down on the learning curve by giving people who aren’t doing a lot of these cases one a week or one every two weeks some help in coming up to speed. The more you do, the better you get at it. When surgeons and operating teams can communicate with others, they can improve their techniques without having to wait to see a journal article or hear a presentation that tells you whether you’ve been doing something right or wrong."
The team first designed the database to minimize the frustrations of an in-hospital paper-based registry, but with the capabilities of the Internet at its disposal, it offers the opportunity to analyze and compare data worldwide.
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