The Department of Surgery’s Center for Effectiveness in Surgery and Outcomes Research (CESOR) is composed of a group of surgeons and health services researchers with an interest in comparative effectiveness, quality improvement, patient-reported outcomes, and policy issues in surgery. This collaborative research effort is designed to identify important clinical questions and quality goals that can be evaluated both prospectively and through the use of administrative databases or registries.
CESORS’s mission is to help surgical health services physicians develop the knowledge base and policy framework to ask important clinical questions and develop and test solutions to important health policy dilemmas. Toward this end, CESOR aims to provide a forum for the sharing of ideas, facilitate networking among researchers, and help develop the outcomes research leaders of the future.
While there have been remarkable advances in the field of surgery, there are many ongoing challenges. These include understanding what technological innovation and procedures produce the best outcomes and how to use evidence based medicine in an era of tightening constraints on spending.
CESOR is interested in addressing concerns about disparities in patient access and outcomes, patient preferences, and variations in surgical quality across both hospitals and surgeons. The goal is to encourage physicians to make decisions about surgery driven primarily by current scientific evidence and involving shared decision-making between patients and providers. Patients should be able to expect surgeons who are well trained, with safe outcomes in specific procedures, who systematically track their outcomes, and who strive continuously to adopt best practices based on evidence.
