Status
Ongoing
As part of a doctoral study at Ghent University, the Belgian Cancer Registry (BCR) is mapping the quality of care for glioma patients in Belgium with financial support from Stichting tegen Kanker (Foundation against Cancer).
At a time that sees increasing hospital collaboration and concentration of care, it is important to investigate whether the treatment and survival of glioma patients in Belgium vary depending on the hospital where they are treated, and whether any differences are related to the number of patients treated in a hospital. This project therefore has two objectives: first, to define relevant and measurable quality indicators for glioma treatment in Belgium, and, second, to calculate these indicators (both process and outcome indicators) for the entire country and for each hospital.
A first set of existing quality indicators will be selected based on a literature review. This set will be further extended with additional quality indicators drawn from clinical guidelines and recommendations, and approved by a panel of Belgian experts through a Delphi survey. Thereafter, measurable indicators will be calculated for each hospital for patients with glioma diagnosed between 2004 and 2019. The results for the different indicators will be compared with an (inter)national benchmark. In addition, the possible association between patient volume and indicator result will also be studied.
To calculate the quality indicators, BCR uses cancer registration data, information from pathology reports, manual annotations of pathology reports by project staff (neurosurgeons) and data obtained by the Agence InterMutualiste (AIM) (the agency responsible for collating data from Belgium’s seven health insurance funds).
All participating hospitals in Belgium will receive a feedback report with both the specific results of the full indicator set for that hospital and anonymised results from other Belgian hospitals. This will allow centres to evaluate their own results and compare them with anonymised results from other hospitals in Belgium.
The findings will be compiled and presented in the doctoral thesis. The results will also be incorporated into scientific articles, allowing them to be widely shared within the medical community. It will be possible to make recommendations to the Government based on the results obtained.
At a time that sees increasing hospital collaboration and concentration of care, it is important to investigate whether the treatment and survival of glioma patients in Belgium vary depending on the hospital where they are treated, and whether any differences are related to the number of patients treated in a hospital. This project therefore has two objectives: first, to define relevant and measurable quality indicators for glioma treatment in Belgium, and, second, to calculate these indicators (both process and outcome indicators) for the entire country and for each hospital.
A first set of existing quality indicators will be selected based on a literature review. This set will be further extended with additional quality indicators drawn from clinical guidelines and recommendations, and approved by a panel of Belgian experts through a Delphi survey. Thereafter, measurable indicators will be calculated for each hospital for patients with glioma diagnosed between 2004 and 2019. The results for the different indicators will be compared with an (inter)national benchmark. In addition, the possible association between patient volume and indicator result will also be studied.
To calculate the quality indicators, BCR uses cancer registration data, information from pathology reports, manual annotations of pathology reports by project staff (neurosurgeons) and data obtained by the Agence InterMutualiste (AIM) (the agency responsible for collating data from Belgium’s seven health insurance funds).
All participating hospitals in Belgium will receive a feedback report with both the specific results of the full indicator set for that hospital and anonymised results from other Belgian hospitals. This will allow centres to evaluate their own results and compare them with anonymised results from other hospitals in Belgium.
The findings will be compiled and presented in the doctoral thesis. The results will also be incorporated into scientific articles, allowing them to be widely shared within the medical community. It will be possible to make recommendations to the Government based on the results obtained.
Quality of care