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Outcomes in thoracic surgical management of non‐small cell lung cancer
Author(s) -
Wyler von Ballmoos Moritz C.,
Johnstone David W.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of surgical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.201
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1096-9098
pISSN - 0022-4790
DOI - 10.1002/jso.23766
Subject(s) - medicine , multidisciplinary approach , incentive , intensive care medicine , lung cancer , multidisciplinary team , quality of life (healthcare) , resource (disambiguation) , scrutiny , medline , operations management , surgery , risk analysis (engineering) , nursing , oncology , economics , microeconomics , social science , computer network , sociology , computer science , political science , law
Thoracic surgeons traditionally have measured their outcomes in terms of mortality, complication rates, recurrence patterns, and long‐term survival for their cancer patients. These metrics of quality continue to be important today, but increasingly surgeons are under scrutiny for resource utilization, patient experience, and cost effectiveness. Intelligent decisions about resource use require knowledge of utility, disutility, and cost ‐‐ information that is still limited and not easily implemented at the time treatment decisions are made. If we accept the proposition that lung cancer care requires a multidisciplinary team making best use of available resources to minimize unwarranted variation, maximize outcomes, and control costs, then three critical needs can be identified: consensus on goals, robust data, and alignment of incentives across disciplines. J. Surg. Oncol. 2014 110:539–542 . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.