The purpose of this project is to promote improvement in craniofacial health care outcomes. This study addresses two hypotheses: 1) tha significant discrepancies occurring in the outcomes of craniofacial health wil be identified when treatment outcomes of health care providers are compared an when the outcomes are compared with those suggested by published research and professional papers, and 2) that identification of discrepancies in craniofacial health care, coupled with actions taken by craniofacial teams, will result in improvement of health care outcomes.
The aims of this project are: 1) development of a Craniofacial Registry for collection of clinical outcome date, 2) development of researched clinical outcome measures, 3) introduction of researched measures for widespread (national) data collection, 4) promotion of internal (self) assessment by craniofacial teams based on comparison of their performance with aggregate data, and 5) assessment of changes in aggregate data as teams take actions to improve outcomes. Procedure include: 1) design of multiple outcome measures, 2) clinical evaluation of outcome measures, 3) widespread data collection using the researched outcome measures, 4) transfer of the data on clinical outcomes to a Craniofacial Registry, 5) analysis and reporting of aggregate data, 6) comparative analysis of outcome performance of craniofacial teams, 7) report to the Registry of actions taken to improve clinical outcomes, 8) continued collection and transfer of data, and 9) assessment of changes in data over time.
