November 30, 1998To the Participants in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Database and Other STS Members:
We are delighted to announce the execution of an agreement today between The Society and Duke University whereby the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) will become The Society's data warehouse facility as of January 1, 1999. Various aspects of the agreement are effective immediately, and DCRI has been working diligently with Summit Medical Systems (Summit) since July to help ensure a smooth transition in data warehouse services.
We want to highlight some of the features and services that DCRI will be providing The Society and its National Database participants. DCRI will perform its first data harvest beginning in April, 1999. An aggregate report will follow this harvest, as well as site specific reports that will compare your practice data to the national trends. Shortly thereafter, DCRI will provide a data quality report of the April harvest focusing on such areas as missing data, out of range data, and other data quality issues. The Society and DCRI plan to implement a continuous quality improvement process with all sites with the intent of minimizing the number of sites identified as outliers.
Beginning with the year 2000, cardiac surgery data will be harvested twice annually, and we currently plan that both congenital surgery and general thoracic surgery data will be harvested annually. We believe it essential that you receive the results of the data collected and analyzed by DCRI in a timely manner in order that the reports and risk algorithms generated from each data harvest can be utilized effectively to enhance your practice.
The Society and DCRI recognize the importance and value of risk methodologies to your practice. New risk models derived from participant data will be made available within six months of the completion of each harvest. This will allow for the most current risk models in the areas of coronary artery bypass, valve surgery, and combined coronary artery bypass/valve surgery to be incorporated into your software for use in your practice.
As you know, The Society released a RFP for software development several months ago. To date, 12 vendors are actively developing software and their names are posted on our web site (www.sts.org). We are confident that in the next few months these vendors will have Society certified software available for purchase. As these products become certified, this information will be made available to you both by mail and by our web site.
As noted in our earlier correspondence, your current participation agreement that has allowed you to participate in the National Database (which also may include terms regarding the licensing of software from Summit) must be replaced by a new participation agreement effective January 1, 1999. We anticipate that the annual warehouse participation fee will be $1,700 per site.
The Society is working closely with DCRI and all software vendors to make your software conversion as smooth as possible. It will be to your advantage to obtain one of the newly certified software products as soon as practical. Certified software will have several enhancements including an improved and simplified core data set, better automatic internal data quality checks, standardized export capabilities to make your data more accessible and useful, and new standard methods for data harvest.
We recognize that some participants will need additional time to obtain one of the new certified software products. Summit has announced that it will support their Vista product through June 30, 1999. By this time, it will be your responsibility to convert to a software product that is certified by The Society in order to continue participation in the National Database.
Summit has also announced that it will not support their DOS software beyond December 31, 1998. If you use Summit's DOS software, it is unlikely that DCRI will be able to accept Summit's DOS data for the 1999 spring harvest unless you first acquire certified software from one of the vendors. Once your new vendor has converted your data, DCRI will accept your data for the harvest. Further information will be sent to DOS users in the near future.
Members who participate using non-Summit vendors' software should contact their vendor, as most of these vendors are working to certify their current products to meet the new STS standards. Once you have converted to a certified product, your data will be accepted for the spring harvest and subsequent harvests to follow.
Finally, please note that Summit has already conducted its 1998 harvest. This was their final harvest and it intends to publish a final report before the end of the year. We gratefully acknowledge all the contributions that Summit Medical Systems has made in the development of the National Database, particularly Mark Schwartz who has personally supervised the activities since the inception.
The Society is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for the National Database and we look forward to your continued participation. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either Mary Eiken or us at the national headquarters office at 312-644-6610 or by e-mail at mary_eiken@sba.com.
Sincerely,
Peter C. Pairolero, MD
Chair, Database Liaison Committee
Frederick L. Grover, MD
Chair, National Database CommitteeHere are the highlights of this enclosed letter.
- Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) will be the new warehouse facility for The Society of Thoracic Surgeons' National Database.
- The first harvest will begin in April 1999 with aggregate and site specific reports to follow.
- Risk Models will be provided within six months of the harvest.
- Software Vendor Certification will begin in the next 4-6 weeks.
- The Society shortly expects to distribute new participation agreement for data warehousing effective January 1, 1999.
- The annual fee for data warehousing is anticipated to be $1,700 per site.
- Data collected with the Summit's Vista software will be accepted through June 30, 1999.
- The Society and DCRI are committed to providing high quality and meaningful data back to the participants.