Strategies to Mitigate the Pandemic Aftermath on Perioperative Professionalism.

Background: This retrospective comparative cohort study aimed to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on professionalism within the perioperative environment of a tertiary cancer center across three periods: pre-pandemic, pandemic, and an interventional endemic phase.

Methods: A retrospective observational review of a prospectively maintained safety event report (SER) database at MD Anderson Cancer Center, with an intervention during the COVID-19 endemic phase, was conducted. This was performed to compare the incidence of professionalism-related events (PRE), which are included in the SER database, during the COVID-19 pandemic period (March 2020 to May 2022), with a pre-pandemic period (September 2011 to February 2020) and a postintervention endemic phase (June 2022 to March 2023).

Cost Analysis for Robotic and Open Gastrectomy.

Objective: To determine the magnitude of the perioperative costs associated with robotic gastrectomy (RG).

Background: A robotic surgery platform has a high implementation cost and requires maintenance costs; however, whether the overall cost of RG, including all perioperative costs, is higher than conventional open gastrectomy (OG) remains unknown.

Methods: Patients who underwent a major gastrectomy during February 2018 through December 2021 were retrospectively identified.

Laparoscopic transverse abdominis plane block: how I do it and a cost efficiency analysis.

Purpose: To determine the efficacy and efficiency of laparoscopic transverse abdominis plane block (Lap-TAP) in patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy and gastrectomy compared to those of ultrasound-guided TAP (US-TAP).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of patients who underwent open or minimally invasive (MIS) pancreatoduodenectomy and major gastrectomy with the use of Lap-TAP or US-TAP at our institution between November 1, 2018, and September 30, 2021. We compared the estimated time and cost associated with Lap-TAP and US-TAP.

Why bundled payments could drive innovation: an example from interventional oncology.

Some have suggested that the current fee-for-service health care payment system in the United States stifles innovation. However, there are few published examples supporting this concept. We implemented an innovative temporary balloon occlusion technique for yttrium 90 radioembolization of nonresectable liver cancer.

Quality initiatives: Establishing an interventional radiology patient radiation safety program.

The Interventional Radiology Patient Radiation Safety Program was created to better educate patients who are scheduled to undergo high-dose interventional radiologic procedures about the risks of radiation, better monitor the delivered doses, and reduce the risk for deterministic effects. The program combines preprocedure evaluation and counseling, intraprocedure monitoring, and postprocedure documentation and counseling with the guidelines of the National Cancer Institute and the Society of Interventional Radiology. Between July 2009, when the program was implemented, and September 2010, over 3500 interventional radiologic procedures were monitored and documented, and 63 procedures with an adjusted cumulative dose of more than 3 Gy were identified and further analyzed; four procedures were found to be outside the control limits.