Forum Considers Methods

for Treatment Outcome Reporting

Nearly 60 representatives of the BMT community responded to an invitation from CIBMTR and ASBMT to participate in a Center-Specific Outcome Analysis Planning Forum on Sept. 26-27 in Milwaukee. 

The objective was to gather information and advice on how the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research can best fulfill its obligation to analyze and report survival rates for allogeneic transplants by transplant center, and then make the information public in a fair, understandable way.  The CIBMTR is collecting and maintaining the data in a new Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database (SCTOD) under a contract with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Joining the clinicians and transplant center administrators for the forum were representatives of several government agencies, private payers and patient advocacy organizations.  They examined issues such as:

·         statistical methodology for modeling center-specific performance

·         transitioning from reports of unrelated to all allogeneic transplants

Over the next several weeks, CIBMTR will be considering the information and recommendations gathered at the forum and developing methods and a plan for data analysis and reporting.  All members of the BMT community will have an opportunity to review and comment on that methodology when presented at the Medical Directors Conference on Feb. 14 during the 2009 BMT Tandem Meetings in Tampa.