Donald S. Likosky, PhD
Objective: Identify gaps between current versus evidence-based practice.Thousands of articles are added to the peer-reviewed literature on the topic of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Sorting through this evidence, and secondarily incorporating this evidence into one’s practice is an enormous feat. While evidence-based guidelines do exist which reflect some aspects of CPB, it is unknown the extent to which current CPB practice reflects these guidelines.
The ability to improve practice in part is attributed to measurement, benchmarking, reflection, and action. Measurement requires one to identify variables of interest, such as patient, process and outcome-level. Benchmarking refers to the identification of either theoretical or actual targeted values (of variables you measure) that you and your clinical team wish to attain. Reflection refers to comparing the measured versus benchmark values, and identifying opportunities for achieving one’s goals. Action refers to the clinical team developing, implementing, and assessing the effect of quality improvement interventions.
This talk will assess current CPB practice through the lens of a regional consortium of institutions in northern New England, and compare this practice to evidence-based CPB guidelines. Opportunities for leveraging data to identify gaps between current versus evidence-based CPB practice will be identified using regional cardiac and perfusion registries. These performance gaps will serve as the focus for regional quality improvement interventions.
