Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group
The Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern (UTSW) became an active site for the Multicenter Perioperative Outcomes Group (MPOG) in 2022. MPOG is a consortium of academic and community hospitals, formed in 2008, that collects and aggregates data to fulfill the dual mission of research and quality improvement in the perioperative arena. MPOG seeks to improve experiences of patients receiving care by anesthesia clinicians, and has developed policies, procedures, and the technical infrastructure required to conduct large scale research, create quality improvement initiatives, educate caregivers, and guide healthcare administration.
Being a member site, UTSW participates in ASPIRE-Anesthesiology Performance Improvement and Reporting Exchange, the quality improvement arm of MPOG. The goal of ASPIRE is to improve the care of patients undergoing anesthesia by reducing unexplained variation in practice and collaborating with anesthesia providers to define best practices. Participating sites, including UTSW work together to build quality measures, review best practices, and exchange ideas for improving patient outcomes. ASPIRE has developed numerous quality measures, spanning several anesthesia care domains, which can be found here.
MPOG membership also provides opportunities to its member institutions to perform descriptive, operational and outcome studies utilizing perioperative data. MPOG provides a large dataset involving multiple sites, spread across long time periods, and describing heterogeneity of practice across various institutions. The goal of MPOG research is to systematically transform real-world perioperative health data into actionable knowledge. The Perioperative Clinical Research Committee (PCRC) is made up of physicians and researchers at all participating MPOG institutions and governs the research efforts of MPOG, by reviewing all submitted proposals and tracking the progress of ongoing projects. The committee ensures the appropriateness of the clinical research conducted within MPOG and the use of MPOG resources. Research involving the MPOG database is of the highest quality and is published in high-impact journals. The various steps involved with the submission of a research proposal with MPOG are described here. The list of variables and outcome measures that can be extracted from the MPOG database can be accessed via the QI Measures Appendix and Phenotype Appendix .
The Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at UT Southwestern has created a pathway for our faculty to utilize both the QI and research opportunities with MPOG. Faculty should submit their QI or research proposals using the forms provided on the right hand side of this page, the proposals will then be reviewed by the MPOG proposal review committee and feedback on the proposal will be provided by the committee. Research proposals that the committee feels are likely to be successfully conducted using the MPOG database and are meritorious will then be prepared to be submitted to PCRC. The primary author will work with UTSW MPOG site PI to submit a cover sheet to the coordinating center briefly outlining the proposed research via the Research Consultation Form.
UTSW MPOG leadership:
Department Chairman
Vice Chair of Research
Vice Chair for University Hospitals
MPOG Primary Investigator, Quality Champion
I.T. Champion
