Publication of outcome should be welcomed, not feared

Retinal surgeons have nothing to lose and everything to gain from participating in the new retinal detachment database being launched by EURETINA and the British and Eire Association of Vitreoretinal Surgeons (BEAVRS), said BEAVRS president Bill Aylward FRCS, Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, UK .Speaking at the BEAVRS symposium held at this year’s EURETINA congress, Dr Aylward noted that many of the fears surgeons have are not only unfounded but also ignore the benefits that can be obtained through such databases Typical fears include the idea that surgeons who take on difficult cases and as a result have poorer results than those who only take on the easier cases will find themselves the object of opprobrium from health authorities, hospital management and even the press. As a result they will become reluctant to take on those difficult cases.

“The publication of data has hardly affected patient movement at all and hardly any surgeon has been hounded. And the very fact that an organisation collects and publishes data increases confidence,” he said. Furthermore, the results from cardiac surgeons in the UK suggest that reporting outcomes seems to improve outcomes. “The take-home message from the cardiac surgeon experience is that just by doing it. We don’t know why the standards go up and we don’t know why, but it’s a very interesting phenomenon,” Dr Aylward added.