We’d like to welcome Legacy Health as one of our newly launched DEBUT study sites! Their investigative team includes three colorectal surgeons at Legacy Medical Group-Gastrointestinal Surgery as well as Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Legacy Health is the only Oregon hospital participating in the Surgical Clinical Outcomes Assessment Program (SCOAP), a collaborative to build a safer, higher quality, and more cost-effective surgical healthcare system. Legacy became involved in SCOAP several years ago after they started a bariatric program which required involvement in a regional quality improvement program in order to be an accredited center of excellence. Then their colorectal program got involved in SCOAP, too.
“We’re always looking for ways to get involved with research, and we are very interested in participating in SCOAP-related activities because they want to contribute to the literature and understanding of the optimal management of colorectal diseases,” says Legacy colorectal surgeon Dr. Joseph Frankhouse, MD, FACS. “We feel that the shared input from us and similar institutions can be extremely valuable for answering these questions, as no single institution has enough volume.”
Dr. Frankhouse had done several clinical studies on colon cancer and enhanced recovery programs for colorectal surgery but never on diverticular disease, which is one of the reasons why he became interested in the DEBUT study.
“It’s challenging to know when you should operate on the patient, especially when it comes to uncomplicated diverticulitis," he says. “There are many debates and anecdotal opinions, but very little in the literature about how many attacks is enough to have surgery; how you define an attack; and how you factor in hospitalization, severity of disease and response to antibiotics. We are hoping the DEBUT study will help us answer that question.”