Quintiles to work with American College of Surgeons on data in attempt to improve patient outcomes

Editor’s note: This story has been revised to clarify the fact that Quintiles does not gain access to American College of Surgeons data for use beyond the announced agreement.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Quintiles will work with the American College of Surgeons in a drive to improve patient outcomes.

Under a six-year agreement announced Friday, Quintiles (NYSE: Q) will form a clinical registry platform for data from all ACS registries across some 1,800 hospitals.

Here’s how Quintiles explains what the deal means:

“ACS chose Quintiles based on our clinical/medical expertise as well as our technological capabilities to combine their six quality registries onto one giant registry that will tell a deeper, more holistic picture of the surgical care pathways and related patient outcomes to ultimately better inform care decisions and improve health.”

In a time of growing demands for payments to be based on results of medical care, the goal is to “improve surgical patient care outcomes.”

Financial terms of the agreement won’t be disclosed at this time, according to a Quintiles spokesperson.

“ACS will collaborate with Quintiles to strengthen the College’s ability to improve surgical care delivery and quality by integrating six separate registries onto a common, cloud-based data platform to support quality improvement efforts and individual surgeons as they make decisions in real time at the point of care,” they said in a joint announcement.

Over the past several years, Quintiles has capitalized on the growing amount of digital health information to form databases from which it and partners hope to harvest information to improve healthcare.

“Quintiles is well-positioned to integrate evidence and deliver actionable insights based on patient, provider and payer data,” said Richard Thomas, president od Technology & Solutions at Quintiles.

“Since 2011, Quintiles has developed more than 160 patient registries and observational studies, leveraging technologies and expertise among key stakeholders – from patients and physicians to payers – to reshape the way healthcare decisions are made and delivered. This effort by ACS and Quintiles is a shining example of how, by working across stakeholders with a focus on integration and outcomes, a healthier world is possible.”

The data base collaborations are due in part to changes within the healthcare industry where payments are becoming more based on outcomes.

“There is a growing movement among payers to tie reimbursement decisions to patient outcomes, resulting in fewer payments for complications that are deemed preventable,” ACS and Quintiles explained. “The combined ACS registries will better support high-quality surgical care delivery and help prevent avoidable complications by allowing hospital staffs and surgeons to gather, compare and analyze data across specialty practice areas, patients and geographies to help clarify the value of potential surgical care pathways.”

Data information from ACS will include: