Last week as I was browsing through LinkedIn, and came across a 2018 scientific article, published in the Transplantation Journal about the “Quality Metrics ins Solid Organ Transplantation”. The conclusions touch a raw nerve of transplantation activities: the lack of information about the quality of the care provided.
Quality measures – a transplantation need
Measuring quality is always challenging, and healthcare is no exception.
In Europe, the 53/2010 EU directive introduced for the 1st time quality indicators; its adoption in 2010, implied a compulsory application in all EU countries and a recommendation for European Council members.
However, it was only in 2016, in the 6th edition of the “Guide to the Quality and Safety of Organs for Transplantation” that concern about biovigilance and quality management of organ donation has arisen.
In two years, these concerns were expanded, with the inclusion of surveillance concerns, a clear identification of quality management systems, and, for the 1st time, a chapter about outcomes in organ transplantation. In the USA, the situation appears to be less mature as the National Quality Forum, the organization that reviews and endorses healthcare performance measures, does not list any transplant-specific metrics on its website.
Transplantation is a procedure that benefits a fraction of those in need – annually millions of people benefit from a transplant, but many more continue to wait in extensive waiting lists – and has a profound impact in the quality of life and simply survival, thus measures should be in place to warranty as much as possible the outcomes of such an intervention. No opportunity should be lost, all outcomes should be the best possible outcomes we can provide. However, as refereed in the “Quality Metrics” study, “there is a lack of consensus on what constitutes an important quality measure in transplantation”.
Our vision: all outcomes are the best possible outcomes we can provide
A vision of quality MUST emerge and IS emerging.
Our goal is simple: to provide medical doctors and investigators data, covering the transplantation processes, from end-to-end, from a potential donor detection, a patient needs identification, to post-transplant follow-up.
Our dream? To be actively involved in the further development of a quality management methodology ensuring biovigilance and surveillance are introduced in it so that organ traceability is related to the final outcomes. Furthermore, to create a “learning loop” that pushes donation and transplantation activities to a continuous improving process, in a quest to ensure:
- Organs donated approach more and more the target of 100% procurement
- Organs procured approach the target of being 100% transplanted
- The number of people in waiting lists is reduced to historical minimums,
- The number of people dying in waiting list approaches zero
How can we help improving quality measures?
We are prepared to support healthcare efforts, around the world, public or private, with TransplantHUB, our software to manage the donation and transplantation workflows. Its management support, process reach and simplification, robustness, integration capabilities, and flexibility will provide a secure basis to ensure countries the confidence to scale their operations.
BUT, in this context, TransplantHUB most relevant characteristic is data availability: donors’ data, patients, medication, transplantation methods, processes followed … ensuring the traceability of all activities in the donation and transplantation workflow, as well as of the results obtained.
The objective: to ensure that the medical team can analyze the result of their work and project better outcomes.
To find out more how we, at TransplantHUB, can help, please contact us and we’ll be more than happy to arrange a meeting and demonstrate it further.
