Leading quality improvement

Since 2015, the EACTS Quality Improvement Programme (QUIP) has encouraged the improvement of clinical outcomes for patients and promoted the importance of integrating quality improvement initiatives into daily clinical practice. QUIP operates two international databases, the Adult Cardiac Database (ACD) and EUROMACS – the European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support.

Edgar Daeter, cardiothoracic surgeon and medical manager at the Heartcenter Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein in the Netherlands and newly appointed as Chair of the QUIP Committee, sets out his priorities and goals for the Quality Improvement Programme.

Tell us about your experience in delivering quality improvement programmes.

I have managed quality improvement programmes for a number of years. I am currently the Chair of the National Registry of Cardiothoracic Surgeons in the Netherlands, a position I have held for the past six years. Prior to this I headed up Meetbaar Beter, a doctor driven registry that uses patient-relevant outcome measures to improve quality and transparency of care for Dutch patients with heart disease. This project started as an initiative with two hospitals and grew to involve several renowned heart centres, including academic medical centres. In 2017, this registry merged with 2 other Dutch registries to the NHR (Netherlands Heart Registry) which includes all cardiologic and cardio surgical interventions in the Netherlands. I am also the Medical Manager at the Heartcenter Antonius Hospital Nieuwegein in the Netherlands where I serve as the Chair in IPU coronary artery disease.

What is the role of the QUIP Committee?

The QUIP Committee plays an important strategic role in representing the programme’s vision and purpose to EACTS members and to centres and institutions across Europe. Our primary focus is to deliver clinical and research excellence, and help surgeons improve patient outcomes by ensuring the databases are working effectively and meeting the needs of contributors. The Committee also acts as an advisory group to the EACTS Council regarding quality improvement related activities.

What are your primary goals as the new Chair of the QUIP committee?

The Chair of the Quality Improvement Programme Committee is a big role. I became Chair at the recent Annual Meeting in Milan and my ambition is to drive the Adult Cardiac Database to become the European Registry of Registries of Cardiac Surgical Data. The Adult Cardiac Database is an important platform and benchmarking tool, and we are working towards bringing the database to the next stage with upgraded software solutions and professional service to your hospital. We are excited to advance the database tools and will announce the relaunch in 2023.

To reach our goal we are approaching national registries and professional associations across Europe to encourage them to collaborate for the purpose of quality improvement and contribute data to the ACD. We are also expanding our opportunities and looking to consider research requests using the data from the ACD.

There is a huge opportunity to work together on a European level, with a higher quantity of procedures and the ability to share methods and insights from different registries throughout Europe. This also means that participating countries that do not have a national registry can benefit from the experiences of well-established registries elsewhere. We need to ensure that QUIP and the data we collect continue to meet the needs of our members for the benefit of improving outcomes for patients. I applaud the collaborative and data driven approach from participating centres and registries so far, and very much look forwarding to welcoming more to this excellent Programme.