How can we use electronic data to improve transfusion care
This work package will use electronic patient records to answer key questions including:
- How common is anaemia pre surgery?
- Do levels of anaemia affect the outcome of surgery?
- Which treatments are best to help manage anaemia and give patients the best chance of recovery?
These answers will help clinicians make better decisions to help patients do well after surgery, reduce the risk of needing a transfusions and promote quicker recovery. Good quality of life is a key request from those receiving blood transfusions as well as those undergoing surgery where blood loss is a risk, and answering these questions will help clinicans ensure better quality of life for patients.
The overall aims of our first three work packages will be to:
- reduce inappropriate variation in practice
- learn from better connectivity between NHSBT and NHS Trusts
- develop novel data-linkage and analytical methods to facilitate research/audit on an ongoing basis.
