The volume of solid organ transplant in the United States is increasing, providing improved quality of life and survival for patients with organ failure. The growth of transplant requires a systematized management of transplant outcomes assessment, especially with the movement toward value-based care. However, there are several challenges to analyzing outcomes in the current registry-based, transplant reporting system: (1) longitudinal data points are difficult to capture in outcomes models; (2) data elements are restricted to those that already exist in the registry data; and (3) there is a delay in the release of outcomes report. In this article, we propose an informatics approach to solve these problems by using a "common data model" to integrate disparate data sources, data elements, and temporal data points. Adopting such a framework can enable multicenter outcomes analyses among transplant centers, nationally and internationally.
Keywords: United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS); clinical research/practice; health services and outcomes research; informatics; organ transplantation in general; registry/registry analysis.
© 2018 The American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.