Specialist Breast Surgeons reach significant milestone– Monitoring the Quality of Breast Surgery in Australia and New Zealand

Breast Surgeons of Australia and New Zealand (BreastSurgANZ) is the primary group of surgeons treating patients with breast disease, both benign and malignant, in Australia and New Zealand. The Society is committed to improving patient care through teaching, research, and the development of evidence-based strategies.

All full members of BreastSurgANZ are required to enter specific de-identified data in an online database, regarding their management of every single patient they treat with breast cancer. The BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit is the largest clinical breast cancer registry in the Southern Hemisphere, and has now passed the significant milestone of more than 175,000 cases entered over the past 15 years. The data is completely anonymous, but real-time analysis of the data means that individual surgeons can review their practice and compare their results with predetermined quality thresholds (benchmarks) for several key performance indicators.

This means that all surgeons who are members of BreastSurgANZ have their surgical performance and treatment recommendations continuously monitored through assessment via the BreastSurgANZ Quality Audit. The main aim is to ensure the best possible surgical care and management of women and men with early breast cancer in Australia and New Zealand through the careful collection and analysis of audit data.

As one of the most comprehensive data bases of its kind the BQA also provides a valuable resource for the study of breast cancer treatment by BreastSurgANZ members and collaborating researchers.

At present not all surgeons undertaking breast cancer surgery are members of BreastSurgANZ, as membership is not compulsory, Furthermore, membership requires a commitment to the time and effort of data collection and entry, and also a willingness on the part of the surgeon, to have their performance monitored.

(Source: BreastSurgANZ)