Over the last five years, Presidents and the executive of ASOHNS have recognised the importance of establishing national databases and outcome data for the benefit of our patients, our professional practice and our professional standing.
AOQAN
The Australian Otolaryngology (Head and Neck) Quality Assurance Network (AOQAN) is the realisation of a national audit/database facilitating the assessment of quality assurance and outcome satisfaction of otolaryngology and head and neck therapies
With four modules for data collection:
- Head and Neck
- Otology - Cochlear Implant
- Rhinology
- Tonsils Adenoids and Grommets
Benefits for Surgeons and their clinics
- Analysing own clinic data for the purpose of quality assurance
- Benchmarking own findings with those of all clinics
- Availability of statistical information to assist in the optimisation of processes and costs
- Improved quality and patient satisfaction.
Benefits for ASOHNS
- Ensuring and optimising the quality of ENT therapies
- Creating an anonymised data set that can be used for research
- Support to continued structured documentation and quality assurance among ASOHNS Members
- Accessing key statistical data that are needed for communication with key authorities.
The long-term aim of the registry is to use the data as a foundation for clinical development and to improve the quality of healthcare.
Controls
- AOQAN data is stored securely in a central database run by Microsoft Azure Cloud Technology that has been assessed by the Australian Government and certified by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).
- Commonwealth Qualified Privilege covers AOQAN and the collection, storing and reporting of de-identified patient and surgical data for the purpose of the database
Patient Consent
- ASOHNS AOQAN Registry employ an opt-in approach to consent, whereby patients must sign a consent provided by their surgeon in order for the surgeon to be able to submit the patient’s information to the ASOHNS AOQAN Registry.
- In order to ensure that ASOHNS, its agents and third party contractors cannot identify any patients based on the personal information disclosed to the Registries, patient consent is not provided to the registry, instead the responsible surgeon maintains a record of that consent.
EVALUATIONS
- The registry will be used to identify national benchmarks.
- Data evaluation available to clinicians.
- Reports to be peer reviewed prior to publication of findings.
- Reports will contain aggregated, de-identified (surgeon and patient) data.
- Reports include numbers of operations performed and outcomes of surgery.
Recommendations from reporting:
- An overview of reasons for poor surgical outcomes will be outlined at a national level.
- Ongoing monitoring should result in improvements in clinical care as surgeons engage with meaningful, evidence-based outcomes.
- Reflection and review of practice is expected of all medical practitioners in Australia.
ASOHNS AOQAN will provide surgeons another source of data to review their practice.
Participation and feedback are encouraged and support will be available from the ASOHNS secretariat. Your support is essential to the success of the registries.
The systems have been designed to be easy to use, to maximise participation. Registrars, Nurses and Assistants can all be set up to enter data on a surgeon's behalf.
Both registers have been accepted by the RACS as complying with the needs of audit for CPD. ASOHNS will be able to supply the college with the names of participants for registration and validation.
or for assistance or further information please contact:
ASOHNS