This American Academy of Thoracic Surgeons webinar was worth the time. If you don’t have an hour to devout here are valuable key points.
Christopher Mascio noted that 25% of US News ranking is based on social perception of a program based on results of a questionnaire sent out to the public. This aspect leads to ineffective ratings. The result of these rankings perceived as ratings are as noted below:
This increased impact on families has been looked at in a study:
I’ll look this study up this at a later date.
Good segment on how to improve.
I recommend scrolling through to watch the last segment on the impact of media coverage, statistics, and understanding it with a bigger picture approach.
As our surgeon for Grace said, “If the family is willing and there’s a 1% chance of a positive outcome; I’m willing.” This is important to understand. If willingness to operate is based on a statistical social perception of outcomes; creating an environment where programs are shutdown or become unwilling to perform due to a perception of outcomes and not the actual ratings that the AATS look at, the system fails more patients and families.
Here’s a screenshot with the time slot of the last discussion:
Link to webinar; unable to locate a YouTube version link:
Here’s the AATS series: