On Wednesday 27 May 2020, T.M.M.H. de By will defend his PhD dissertation, entitled: ‘International Benchmarking in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Quality Improvement by Comparison of Outcome Data’.
Increasingly, health care providers must demonstrate that they are able to meet the justified expectation that they can actually deliver results of care according to the definition: “quality of care is the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge”.
This thesis provides studies in which outcomes in different fields of cardio-thoracic surgery are analysed in perspective. In this way best practises can be defined and the relative outcomes of an individual provider of (health) services can be determined. This process is called benchmarking. Benchmarking provided tangible evidence of measurable qualitative improvement of outcomes. All studies provided additional instruments to come to best practises. In a future perspective this thesis states that the necessity to come to national and international European registries that provide adequate data for benchmarking is increasing. By regularly checking the local outcomes data against those of peer organisations, areas for improvement can be defined and worked upon. The consistent implementation of improvements leads to best practises and continuous improvement of quality.
The PhD defences will not take place publicly in the Senate Hall or Professor Andries Queridoroom due to the coronavirus. The candidates will defend their thesis online.