Description
The speaker Mr Will Eardley addresses an audience of medical professionals, discussing the challenges faced by the Trauma Audit Research Network (TARN) and the implications of data collection in trauma care. They reflect on their personal journey from training as a surgeon to becoming more involved in data analysis and trauma care management. The speaker emphasizes the importance of accurate data in improving patient outcomes and highlights recent issues stemming from a cyber attack that disrupted data collection, leading to a gap in open fracture data for over 18 months. They express concern about the impacts of this disruption on assessing trauma care performance in the UK.
They outline the historical significance of TARN as a robust database for trauma care, underscoring its role in facilitating national data collection that many institutions lack globally. The speaker elaborates on current obstacles, including staff shortages in data collection and management, which hinder effective trauma treatment and analysis. They urge the audience to engage with their local data coordinators and advocate for the importance of data collection, suggesting that many in their audience might not be fully aware of the situation's gravity.
Towards the end, the speaker speaks with optimism about upcoming opportunities for improved data systems and patient care pathways, emphasizing the need for collective action and communication among medical professionals to ensure data integrity and patient safety.