Aim
Collection of multi-institutional data pertaining to treatment of bowel cancer has been hindered by poor clinician compliance with data entry and lack of incentive to participate. We aimed to establish if a novel browser based model of data collection, with a formal loop of clinical review results in complete data capture.
Methods
An internet-based data collection interface, offering automated reporting modules for clinical outcomes, outstanding data fields and surgical quality outcomes was custom designed. The software was combined with a clinical feedback system of multidisciplinary meetings. Sequential cases with opt out consent from five public and private hospitals were analysed for data completeness and accuracy ensuring the highest quality data for clinical audit of Australian colorectal surgeons ensuring quality assurance.
Results
The database has collected data since February 2010. A total of 1854 patients (51.2 % male, 48.8 % female) aged 18 to 100 years were reviewed. We obtained 100 % completion (>60,000 data points) of peri-operative data registered by twenty specialist colorectal surgeons across five private and public hospitals and a full time database manager.
Conclusions
Data completeness and validity are essential for clinical databases to serve the purpose of quality assurance, benchmarking and research. The results confirm the safety and efficacy of colorectal cancer surgery in both the public and private sector in Australia. The successful combination of a simple multi-user interface, defined data points, automated result reporting modules, and data-deficiency reminder module resulted in 100 % data compliance in more than 1800 clinical episodes. The database continues to expand to new hospitals and is a substantial resource for many research projects across Australia. The unprecedented success of this model has led to the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australasia (CSSANZ) adopting this model for data collection for Australia and New Zealand as the binational database.