Healthy Recovery Project: Information for Patients
What is the Healthy Recovery Project?
People having surgery hope for a speedy recovery, with a return to good health. Unfortunately, patients may have surgical complications, with poor or delayed recovery, and sometimes, persistent disability. Previous research from our group revealed that 1 in 3 elderly patients had died or had significant disability 6 months after surgery.
We are establishing an ongoing audit programme and plan to analyse a large database of elderly patients (70 years of age or older) having surgery at The Alfred to determine the risk factors for a poor long-term recovery.
We will use the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS) as a measure of long-term recovery after surgery. This survey consists of 12 questions and was designed to measure disability in the general community. Our research team has demonstrated that the WHODAS is also a good measure of the degree of disability your health problems create for you and how you recover after surgery. Here is a link to the publication from that research.
We will also analyse routinely collected hospital electronic health information such as age, gender, weight, medical conditions, types of surgery and surgical complications. In this way we will be able to determine what factors are linked to a poor long-term recovery.
How will the Healthy Recovery Project affect you?
If you are 70 years of age or older, we will ask you to complete the WHODAS survey before you have surgery. This survey will take approximately 5 minutes. We will then telephone you at 3 and 6 months after your surgery to inquire about your ongoing health and repeat the survey. This telephone call will take approximately 10 minutes.
There will be no change to your treatment as a result of being included in this project. Other than completing the survey, you will have no extra tests.
Participation
Participation in the project is entirely voluntary. You can choose to withdraw your consent to have information about you included in the project at any time. The decision to participate in this project or not will not effect your treatment in any way. You can withdraw consent by contacting a member of the research team below or by clicking here.
How will your information be kept private?
Your health information will be stored indefinitely in a secure Alfred Health data registry, with access restricted only to Project Investigators who are Alfred Health employees. The manner of storage will comply with privacy legislation.
Your health information will remain confidential and will never be released to anyone, including private companies or insurers. A very rare exception is in the case of a court order.
When your health information is analysed, identifying information such as your name and date of birth will be removed so that you are completely anonymous.
How will the Healthy Recovery Project benefit patients?
This information will help patients and doctors make better decisions about having surgery and plan the level of care patients need before and after surgery.
Further, a better understanding of the factors linked to a poor recovery after surgery will help guide future research, some of which will be conducted from data collected in this databank.
Who is responsible for the Healthy Recovery Project?
The Principal Project Coordinator is Dr Mark Shulman who is a Specialist Anaesthetist and researcher in The Department of Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at The Alfred Hospital and an Adjunct Lecturer at Monash University. He is also a member of the Australia and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Clinical Trials Network. Dr Shulman is part of an experienced research team at the Alfred and has been a lead researcher in several local and international research projects.
Who can I contact for more information?
Principal Project Coordinator
Dr Mark Shulman
Department of Anaesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, Alfred Health
Commercial Road, Melbourne, VIC, 3004.
Phone: (03) 9076 3176
Fax: (03) 9076 8076
Email: m.shulman@alfred.org.au
Department of Anaesthesia Research Manager
Ms Sophie Wallace
Department of Anaesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, Alfred Health
Commercial Road, Melbourne, VIC, 3004.
Phone: (03) 9076 3176
Fax: 9076 8076
Email: s.wallace@alfred.org.au
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