Collaborative Quality Improvement in the Congenital Heart Defects: Development of the ASSIST Consortium and a Preliminary Surgical Outcomes Report.

Objective: ASSIST is the first Brazilian initiative in building a collaborative quality improvement program in pediatric cardiology and congenital heart disease. The purposes of this manuscript are: (a) to describe the development of the ASSIST project, including the historical, philosophical, organizational, and infrastructural components that will facilitate collaborative quality improvement in congenital heart disease care; (b) to report past and ongoing challenges faced; and (c) to report the first preliminary data analysis.

Methods: A total of 614 operations were prospectively included in a comprehensive online database between September 2014 and December 2015 in two participating centers.