The Stick and Bigger Stick Approach to Health Outcomes Publication

The Bulletin of the Annals of the Royal College of England (RCSEng)is this month dedicated to the thorny issue of surgical outcomes reporting. The editorial team should be commended for publishing 2 very opposing views of the reporting of surgeon specific mortality data.

NICE, ANGINA, SURGERY & TAGGART

The UK's NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) recently published guidelines for the management of stable angina. As the primary guideline setting body in the UK, what they advise is a big deal. Public health commissioning bodies look to this organisation before they decide to invest in any treatment.

PEOPLE RESEARCH A CAR MORE THAN THEIR CARDIAC SURGEON

Is this video, from Consumer Reports in the USA, a vision of the future for the UK? I suppose it should be - you just cannot argue against it. The Bristol Heart Surgery scandal and the endeavours of Sarah Boseley at the Guardian led to the eventual publication of individual surgeons' results. Today however, 6 years after the first publication of institutional results and the efforts of the then President of the Society of CT surgeons and the current medical director of the NHS, Sir Bruce Keogh, we are no further forward.