Case Study - Registries
Informing safe and effective spinal treatments
By collecting and analysing data on spinal therapy outcomes, the Spine Tango registry aims to inform improvements in patient care worldwide.
Growing demand
Back pain is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide, so spinal surgery is a rapidly developing area. Hundreds of thousands of operations take place every year, but a lack of comparative data is hindering the development of best practice. It’s also potentially putting patients at risk.
The Spine Tango registry collects high-quality data on all kinds of implant procedures, conservative therapies and patient reported outcomes (PROMs). As a result, it enables clinicians and industry to monitor the safety and effectiveness of treatments.
New partnership
Spine Tango was established in 2004 by leading spinal society EUROSPINE. It holds data on treatments performed in hospitals across 19 countries and there are ambitious plans to expand. Registry manager Robert Conrad explains:
“Joining Spine Tango is voluntary, so we had to make it as easy as possible to enter data. We also wanted to engage implant manufacturers at every stage and have a secure and robust technology platform that could grow with us. We didn’t have that kind of expertise in-house, so we turned to NEC.”
By making data easier to enter, store, analyse and share, we will help to extend Spine Tango’s reach and support better treatments.
How it works
Hospitals use secure online forms to register data on patient treatments, including any implant used. Patient reported outcomes are also recorded to build a complete picture. Clinicians can access a confidential tool to analyse their performance against national benchmarks, with hospitals able to do the same against global benchmarks. The data is also published in anonymised, aggregate format to support clinical research worldwide.
Industry engagement
Industry engagement is key to success, and Spine Tango has been quick to build trusted relationships with implant manufacturers. Being able to monitor real-world implant performance is vital to ensure patient safety, as well as supporting implant innovation. The registry incorporates full product catalogues – covering over 160,000 unique products so far – to make it easy to record the implants used in each case.