The South African Collaborative Surgical Outcomes Study (SACSOS)

Overview

Improving quality of perioperative care depends on reliable measurement of clinically important and patient-centred data, that will allow collaborative decision-making between patient and clinician. The use of digital health tools to share person-centric data with the aim of improving quality of care is encouraged by the World Health Organization Global Strategy on Digital Health. With virtual and online communication becoming a universal feature of modern life, there is a promising opportunity to engage patients and clinicians in perioperative data collection using digital health platforms. The Perioperative Shared Health Record (PSHR), developed by Safe Surgery South Africa, provides the opportunity to capture standardised patient-centric postoperative outcomes measures, like Quality of Recovery (QOR), Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS). These are all standardised measures and questionnaires, which have been recommended by working groups focused on the patient's experience after surgery. The PSHR enables sharing of data between the surgical patient and his/her clinical team (surgeons and anaesthetists).

SACSOS is a patient-centered prospective observational cohort study. Initially, clinical teams in the South African private health care sector will be approached. In later phases of the study, recruitment will include eligible patients in the South African public health care sector. Patient engagement and -participation will be sought during the recruitment process by engaging with the clinical team (surgeon, anaesthetist, hospital clinical manager) for individual patient care (at a micro level); in data collection using a patient-centric platform; and in the follow up after surgery. Data will be collected by patients using a digital platform, the Perioperative Shared Health Record (PSHR). De-identified data will be extracted from the database at predetermined intervals and made available to the principal investigator for analysis. The PSHR will be updated to optimise health information exchange between the surgical patient and clinical team members during the study. Participation from health care providers will be in a team-based approach, including surgeon(s) and/or anaesthetist(s) at each specific center. A core group of participating centers will be identified. The study will focus on patient participation with the web-based platform as the primary recruitment method. This will reduce the need for clinician input, and promote greater patient-centeredness. Patient participation and data capturing require internet access to the web-based platform.