Pediatric Oncology demonstrates the incredible improvements results analysis can offer. "In the 1960s, childhood cancer was nearly always fatal within five years. Today the survival rate is over 75%..."

Wow!

According to the Book, "the tragedy of young children suffering and dying created a sense of urgency and a sense of community to improve treatments." A true feeling of cooperation, sharing data, ‘good communication and mutual support’ made this effort so successful.

The Book goes on to say that it could be even better. Right now, "blinded data is collected and used solely for comparing treatment protocols in clinical trials." Clinical trials typically focus on just one part of a treatment. "Systematic patient registries" would allow "researchers to examine more aspects of care." Nothing like having the whole picture when you want to make decision, huh!

And we still don’t know which doctors conduct the procedures/ processes best. So there’s no way to learn the potential improvements their insights could offer.

We’ve all seen movies about Organ Transplants going to the highest bidder. So this medical condition got the government’s eye early on. A nonprofit, the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), has a federal contract to collect unblinded data for all transplants. Reported on the web, "this system contains data regarding every organ donation and transplant event occurring in the U.S. since 1986," according to UNOS’s website: www.unos.org.

UNOS also uses Social Security’s death information to track mortality. "UNOS…makes recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services about policies for how organs should be allocated to patients on the waiting list. Thus, statistical data on transplant outcomes affects allocation rules."

Although the Book doesn’t give specific rates, it does say that "Performance in transplants has continued to improve, while better results have led to successful transplants in sicker patients…More patients are being treated by excellent providers, who often are willing to negotiate lower prices."

More successes to follow...