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Audits

National Breast Cancer Audit

NBCA Online System Information	Full report
Newsletter - Volume 1 Issue 2 - December 2006	(118KB)
Newsletter - Volume 1 Issue 1 - April 2006 Find out about the new version of the online data entry system	(53KB)
Data dictionary	(630KB) Last modified June 2006
Data entry paper forms	(146KB) Last modified March 2006
Patient consent forms	A4 printer friendly (362KB)	Glossy brochure (420KB)

Progress Reports and other documents	Full report
National Breast Cancer Audit progress report, March 2006	(595Kb)
Process for managing outliers in breast cancer surgery, March 2005	(233KB)
National Breast Cancer Audit progress report, May 2005	(547KB)

Background

In 1995, the Standing Committee on Community Affairs investigated the management of breast cancer and recommended an audit be undertaken. Following this report, the National Breast Cancer Audit was established. Between 1999 and 2002 the audit received data for over 16,000 patients from surgeons around Australia and New Zealand. Surgeons have also been able to review their results against national aggregated results for certain indicators. The audit was endorsed by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Section of Breast Surgery as an appropriate means of assessing the treatment of early breast cancer. Despite uncertain and sporadic funding the audit has made significant progress.

In 2001 a report by an external auditor recommended that the audit be transferred to a web-based data entry system, incorporating "state-of-the-art" security systems. These and other recommendations have been adopted and the web-based data entry system will be launched soon. The new system has a number of advantages over the original data entry system such as compatibility (the type of computer and system used by the surgeon are irrelevant), improved security (comparable to those in place for online banking) and dynamic and expandable reporting capabilities. Renewed effort will also be made to incorporate data from existing breast cancer registries in the online database to gain a better representation of Australasian practice.

Expanding the scope of the audit

In August 2002 ASERNIP-S took over the responsibility for the management of the National Breast Cancer Audit. The Minister for Health and Ageing has assured ASERNIP-S that funding for the audit will be ongoing. This funding commitment is reflected in the increase of the scope of the audit to that of a full clinical audit. The aim of clinical audit is to improve patient care by systematically reviewing the standard of patient care against explicit criteria (i.e. the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management of Early Breast Cancer) and to implement change where necessary. Whilst the privacy of individual surgeons will continue to be guaranteed under the Commonwealth Health Insurance (Quality Assurance Confidentiality) Amendment Act (1992), surgeons will be able to review their own results against national aggregated results and against the guidelines. In addition, a more active approach to the dissemination of this information will take place, and ongoing analysis of the data will aim to determine whether practice is changing where indicated. It is hoped that this process will optimise the quality of patient care for the management of early breast cancer treatment.

To get more informaton on the National Breast Cancer Audit, please contact:

Dr Jim Wang (Senior Research Officer)
Ph: (08) 8363 7513
Email: jim.wang@surgeons.org