Traditional outcome measures Flashcards
What are the 3 main components for measuring quality of care according to Donabedian?
Structure –> Process –> Outcome
What is an outcome measure?
A measuring instrument that provides a rating or score (categorical or continuous) that is intended to represent some aspect of the patient’s medical status.
How does ISPOR divide outcome measures?
based on the way they are assessed
How are surgical outcomes traditionally measured?
LOS, complications, reoperations
Define surgical complications.
Any deviation from the normal postoperative course.
Explain limitations of current studies on complications descriptions.
• About 80% of studies describing complications failed to provide any information about their definition and severity.
Sometimes, papers published in very high IF journals did not specify duration of F/U, no outpatient information, not a single complication defined, no severity grade used.
Explain the advantages of using pre-defined time points for assessment of complications (as opposed to index hospitalization)
- Time points are important to assess post-op later outcomes/complications! Those are based on studies that have shown that mortality 1-year after surgery is mainly due to disease progression vs. surgery-related mortality.
o Surgery-related mortality curve flattens after 90 days.
o If assessment time point is too long, we might record complications that are unrelated to the surgery. With that 90-day time points we will not be “over-recording” complications.
How should complications be defined?
*We need criteria that are disease-specific, procedure-specific but also needs to be standardized in definition. A common criteria in definition is the severity of the complication.
Explain the Clavien Dindo classification
- Severity defined according to the degree of invasiveness of the treatment needed to correct the complication
- Grade of complication severity correlates with the cost of different complications
- The Dindo Clavien classification is the most widely used classification for complication severity
Name the limitations of the clavien-dindo classification system
o Considers only the single most severe complication experienced by the patient
o “Ignores” events of lesser severity; underestimates overall morbidity burden
o Uses an ordinal dichotomous scale = large sample sizes
Explain the Comprehensive complication index
• Accounts for all complications experienced by a patient: better reflect morbidity burden
• Calculated as the sum of all complications weighted for their severity. Weighed continuous score from 0-100.
o 0 = no complication
o 100 = Death of the patient
• Provides a continuous rather than ordinal/dichotomous measure of complications
• Increased sensitivity to detect differences in complications
• May decrease sample size requirements in comparative studies (d/t continuous scale)
How many CCI points are considered clinically significant?
10 pts
Name the limitations of the CCI
o Initial validation process focused on surgeries with high post-operative morbidity (e.g. esophagus, pancreas)
o Performance in less extensive procedures is still uncertain
- Distribution very skewed towards 0 –> hard to deal with statistically
Explain the limitations of LOS as a surgical outcome measure.
- Does not account for the late recovery stage
- Patient could be ready to be discharged but not be depending of the hospital culture, their willingness to be discharged, the surgeon’s preference and PO support at home.
What is the median difference between LOS and time to functional recovery ?
Median difference of 2 days between LOS (5 days) and time to functional recovery (3 days)
Differentiate LOS from TRD.
TRD has standardized criteria to allow for more accurate comparison of results.
How were the criteria for TRD determined?
Using Delphi method
Name the criteria for the TRD
- Tolerance of oral intake (at least 1 solid meal w/o N/V + should drink actively >800-1000ml/d w/o IV)
- Recovery of lower GI function (passed flatus)
- Adequate pain control with oral analgesia (pt should rest and mobilize (sit and walk) without sig pain (=<4 on pain scale).
- Ability to mobilize and self care (pt should be able to perform ADLs)
- Clinical exam, lab tests show no evidence of complications (normal oral temp, pulse, BP and resp rate, Hgb, able to empty bladder)
How was the TRD validated?
TRD consensus validated against multiple hypotheses (known groups):
- TRD is longer in subject undergoing open surgery
- TRD is longer in subjects having lower preoperative physical status (ASA > 3)
- TRD is longer in elderly subjects (>80 years old)
- TRD is longer in subjects having postoperative complications
- TRD is longer in subjects having emergency colorectal surgery
- TRD is shorter than actual hospital length of stay
What were the results of the TRD validation?
Results showed sig diff in TRD for all hypothesized groups except octogenarians were not sig diff from non-octogenarians.
Conclusion: Validity and reliability of TRD as a measure of short-term (to intermediate stage). Using TRD as an alternative to LOS may decrease sample size requirements in future RCTs.
Name the limitations of TRD.
- Resource intensive - need for prospective data collection and daily patient assessment
- Lack of validity in most surgical contexts
What is a composite outcome?
- A composite endpoint combines multiple components of interest into a single variable
- Patients who have experienced any of the events specified are considered to have experienced the composite outcome
What are the advantages of composite outcomes?
- Avoids the need to choose a single primary endpoint when many may be of equal importance
- Increasing number of events, reduces sample size requirement
What are the limitations of composite outcomes?
- Observed between-groups differences from a composite endpoint may be misleading or lead to a conclusion that all the components contribute equally to that difference
- Interpretation could be problematic when component endpoints are dissimilar in patients or clinicians importance
- Interpretation could be problematic if either the rates or relative risk reduction vary appreciably across components
Name an example of composite outcome
Textbook outcome
What is textbook outcome?
• TO represents the optimal course following surgery that is better aligned with patient expectations
around “optimal” care
• TO is used to assess quality or success of complex surgical procedures
• TO encompasses determinants of quality of care from different domains including structure, process, and individual outcomes
How is the evidence regarding PROMs?
There is still very limited evidence supporting what are ‘best practices’ when measuring PROMs in perioperative research and clinical settings.
Define “patient-centered care”.
Delivery of care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values. (Many definitions are available in the literature, but this is the favorite one)
Define “shared decision-marking”.
An approach where clinicians and patients share the best available evidence when faced with the task of making decisions, and where patients are supported to consider options, to achieve informed preferences.
Name 3 interventions to improve surgery outcomes.
Prehabilitation, minimizing surgical trauma through minimally invasive surgery, ERAS programs
What are the types of PROMs?
- Unidimensional/ Multidimensional
* Generic/Condition-specific
What is a unidimensional PROM?
Questionnaires that measure a single construct.
May have one single question (item) or multiple questions (items)
Produces one single score representing the construct of interest