A new study will allow researchers to work with patient focus groups to develop an electronic survey tool that will measures the issues that patients care most about one year after weight-loss surgery. Patients report how well they are doing via patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Across the US, all hospitals that are accredited to do bariatric surgery will collect PROMs – with more than 89 percent of all bariatric operations in the US currently being performed at hospitals accredited by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement (MBSAQIP). Approximately 13,000 patients a month have bariatric surgery at one of these accredited centres, and some data are already being collected on all of them.
Dr Matthew Hutter
The three-year, ‘Comparative Effectiveness of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery using Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)’, study will be led by Principal Investigator Dr Matthew Hutter from Massachusetts General Hospital will record data on laparoscopic roux-en-y gastric bypass, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic adjustable gastric band. A patient, with the help from his or her doctor, must decide which operation is best for his or her particular situation. When a physician can explain how much better off their patients will be one year after their operations, patients can best decide which operation is appropriate.
The patient-reported data will be combined with the MBSAQIP data and analysed with advanced modelling techniques. The results will be used to compare the three most common weight-loss operations: the gastric bypass, the adjustable gastric band, or the sleeve gastrectomy. Patients can enter their weight, age, and medical problems, and the computer will provide data to help these patients, or their doctors, decide which operation would be best for them and what the expected results are. The data will measure the things that patients care most about and help them decide which weight-loss operation is best for their specific needs.
Source: http://www.bariatricnews.net/?q=news/112129/study-help-patients-decide-operation-choice