NORGAST contributes to the establishment of a register in Ethiopia.
The National Register for Gastrointestinal Surgery (NORGAST) is collaborating with staff at St. Paul’s Hospital in Addis Ababa to establish a quality register for gastrointestinal surgery in Ethiopia (ETHIRGAST).
It has been eight years since NORGAST received national status in spring 2015. Since then, professionals associated with the registry at the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN) have worked to make it as effective as possible and to be a beacon in registry work within Health North. The main objective is to improve patient treatment in gastroenterology in Norway.
Some time ago, gastro surgeons in Norway established contact with gastro surgeons in Ethiopia, and the idea of a collaboration took shape. They have been working on the project for over a year.
— It is a collaborative project that both parties have something to gain from contributing to. We saw that there was a good professional environment in Addis Ababa. The surgeons there perform many operations, but they do not have a registry, says Kristoffer Lassen, head of the NORGAST.
The Necessity of a Registry
From NORGAST, a gastro surgical department can extract data and statistics on investigations, treatments, follow-ups, and any complications. They can also compare results with other gastro surgical departments in Norway. This will make it easier for doctors to know that what they are doing is effective and that they are following national guidelines.
A similar quality registry does not exist in Ethiopia.
— The surgeons at St. Paul’s are motivated and active. Without a registry, everyone can believe they are doing good enough work, but they cannot really know, as they do not have statistics to support that. And if one is to engage in quality improvement work, one needs data to rely on, points out Lassen.
Creating a NORGAST Copy
The idea behind the collaborative project is that the professionals associated with NORGAST will help St. Paul’s get started with its quality registry. After many years of working on their own registry, Kristoffer Lassen and his colleagues have gained valuable experiences that could be invaluable for anyone looking to start a similar registry.
— It will be a NORGAST copy with the same definitions that we have, and in addition, a lot of work has been done on translation and modifications. At the same time, they will avoid some of the same teething problems that we have had with NORGAST, as they will receive a ready-made package. In autumn 2023, project participants from Norway and Ethiopia gathered in Tromsø, and in January 2024, a delegation from us travelled to Addis Ababa. We hope that by summer they will be able to extract some reports, says Kristoffer Lassen.
He is very pleased with the support they have received in their work from, among others, UNN, SKDE, Health North, and OUS.
— It is very good! We would have been at a loss without that support.
NORGAST
Norsk register for gastrokirurgi (NORGAST) har vært driftet siden 1. januar 2014, og fikk status som nasjonalt kvalitetsregister våren 2015.
Registerets hovedmål er å bedre pasientbehandlingen innen gastrokirurgi (kirurgiske inngrep på organer i fordøyelsessystemet) i Norge.
Registeret skal bidra til å identifisere områder med sviktende kvalitet og dermed kunne drive målrettet kvalitetsforbedrende arbeid.
Universitetssykehuset Nord-Norge HF har det administrative ansvaret for registeret. Styringsgruppen er bredt sammensatt med representanter fra samtlige helseregioner.