Working group on Outcome

Aims and Missions   

The starting point for outcome research in intensive care medicine was the high variability in medical practice, which was detected through the institution of epidemiological methods at the beginning of the 20th century. The fact that people with a disease could be treated differently and that different treatments could lead to different results led to the search the optimal therapy.
Intensive care medicine is a field in which, despite great efforts, there is still a lack of scientific evidence concerning its effectiveness. Outcome research, a science based on the development and application of methods for case-mix adjustment, tries to provide tools for the intensivist to assess and compare various outcomes in different groups of patients.

Head   

Rui Moreno - Lisbon, Portugal 

Activities   

SAPS 3 – From the evaluation of the patient to the evaluation of the ICU. Rui Moreno & Philipp Metnitz on behalf of the SAPS 3 Outcome Research Group, in cooperation with the Section on Health Services Research and Outcome. It is now already a year that the main reports of the SAPS 3 project have been published. The two manuscripts have been chosen to be Springer Open Choice articles. They are thus available free of charge to the whole intensive care community worldwide. You can find a direct link to the articles at the project website: www.saps3.org .
In the meanwhile, several substudies have been processed. Maurizia Capuzzo's substudy about Predictors of early recovery of health status after intensive care has been published recently. Further substudies are on their way: HU Rothen's substudy on "Variability in outcome and resource use in intensive care units" has been submitted. Further substudies will soon be finished, including: "The effect of ventilation modes on patients outcomes" (João Gouveia and Marco Ranieri), "Risk-adjusted outcome in ALI" (Antonio Artigas) and "Epidemiology of end-of-life practices in ICU patients" (Eli Azoulay).
Direct links to all published SAPS 3 articles can be found on the Documents page at www.saps3.org
Rui P. Moreno & Philipp G.H. Metnitz on behalf of the SAPS 3 Outcomes Research Group

Meetings agenda and minutes 

The minutes of the latest business meetings (section, research groups) are available for download at the section's website.

The next meeting of the group will be held on Monday 8 October 2007 from 14.30 to 16.00 in room 43 of the Internationales Congress Centrum Berlin (ICC Berlin), Neue Kantstrasse- 14057 Berlin.

Useful Link   

Section HSRO
SAPS3 website
HSRO website