How can we get high quality routine data to monitor the safety of devices and procedures?

This is an important issue worthy of urgent action and debate.

Certainly device tracking is the start. All devices should be bar coded. For inpatients, the bar code should be scanned and added to the procedure (or a new)field in the computerised data. This has a number of benefits:
1. It facilitates recall: centrally held computer records are easy to scan if and when required;
2. The cost of additional data collection is minimised, no new registry to establish, just the cost of adding scanning facilities at relevant locations (ideally decentralised to where devices are inserted but could be done centrally in patient records departments);
3. Data access should eb accorded any researcher who wants to tarck particular types of devices either as a special research project, on a regular basis, or as part of other research;
4. recording specific devices inserted improves costing of procedures as well.

Stephen Duckett