In a paper recently published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery (1), Quilantang & Hugh describe the challenges involved in the establishment of a centralised and dedicated surgical unit at the Royal North Shore Hospital. The authors believe that the provision of “high-quality relevant and accessible data are the foundations of effective audit and research which in turn drives evidence-based surgical practice and quality improvement“. They outline the importance of creating a surgical culture which values these underlying principles. Furthermore, they demonstrate that a systematic approach to the collection of data can result in operational efficiencies which can significantly reduce the burden of surgical data collection.
(1) Quilantang, Maria, and Thomas J. Hugh. 2020. “Embedding a Data Culture in Surgical Practice: Challenges and the Need for a New Approach.” ANZ Journal of Surgery 90 (10): 1838–39. https://doi.org/10.1111/ans.16136.