Quality assurance and data feedback.

Health care quality measurement and improvement are vital concerns of all health care managers. Data feedback is an emerging body of literature delineating principles designed to improve physician interest and cooperation in utilization of peer review activities.

Surgical outcome for resident and attending surgeons.

We asked whether surgical process and outcome differ for physicians in postgraduate training supervised by attending surgeons compared with attending surgeons alone. All appendectomies performed during a 2 year period in a 320 bed voluntary hospital where either the admitting diagnosis or the preoperative diagnosis suggested acute appendicitis were included in the study. Data were abstracted from medical records and pathology reports.