American College of Surgeons found their National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Surgical Risk Calculator accurately estimated a patient's likelihood of experiencing postoperative complications.
Journal of the American College of Surgeons published the findings online.
Here are five takeaways:
1. American College of Surgeons also found they can improve the calculator's performance by recalibrating the device.
2. In 2013, American College of Surgeons devised the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Surgical Risk Calculator as a web-based decision aid and informed consent tool for surgeons and patients.
3. The device presently receives an estimated 1,500 hits daily.
4. Prior to recalibration, American College of Surgeons' researchers found the calculator tended to slightly overestimate a patient's surgical risk for the lowest and highest risk patients. It also tended to underestimate the risk for patients at a moderate risk of post-op complications.
5. Surgeons can adjust the risk score based on his or her subjective patient assessment.
"Our study demonstrates that the NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator has excellent calibration," said Mark E. Cohen, PhD, a co-developer of the tool. "Although no such tool can provide perfect predictions, the Surgical Risk Calculator does what it is intended to do-—accurately estimate a patient's probabilities for important adverse events postoperatively."
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