Dr. Denneny said that the AAO-HNS has already taken the first steps toward determining the best care by measuring the care currently provided. In October, the AAO-HNS Foundation launched Regent, a clinical data registry the organization believes will serve as a foundation for quality reporting, measures development, quality improvement, and clinical and product research in the field of otolaryngology (link TK for November ENTT article on Regent).
“Pricing isn’t going to make patients better,” said Dr. Denneny. “It’s the access to the data on what works that will make [them] better. Pricing is just part of the system that has to be. You can’t spend unlimited money that you don’t have, [but] the actual desire to make things better for patients and the data to do it are what’s going to change the quality.”