Disclaimers:
Clinical Use Consideration
This application/website is offered as a: 1) risk assessment tool, 2) best-practice guide for clinical care, 3) personal case-performance repository/audit mechanism, and 4) educational offering for the problem of pancreatic fistula following pancreatoduodenectomy. It reflects state-of-the-art insights to current knowledge on topic (circa 2021). Suggestions offered for optimizing clinical care (through the use/disuse of various fistula mitigation strategies) are derived from a progression of extensive data analyses that have been scrutinized by peer review and subsequently published in the academic literature (amply provided throughout). Proceeding further in to the site implies understanding of this background, and that the authors and designers of the product cannot be held liable per se for decisions ultimately made by the user.
Data and Research Considerations
Data acquired from this application/website is collected on a centralized, encrypted, secure server accessible only by the authors using password protection. Data about individual patient’s cases is acquired in a manner that ensures it is de-identified of essential and protected medical information. Neither individual patient medical data or unique user/surgeon’s information will ever be shared by the authors.
Individual surgeons can access information regarding their own personal (cumulative/aggregate) practice experience through the “My Case Log” functional page on their application/website. Employing this function is highly encouraged to promote individual practice quality improvement. Variables regarding individual cases are consolidated in association with only the date the procedure was performed. On the other hand, individual surgeons/users will be fully unable to access the data of either: 1) the collective experience of all users, or 2) other user’s individual experiences.
The potential exists, in the future, to possibly conduct formalized research using data collected through this application/website. Neither app downloading or employment of the “My Case Log” function equate to implied permission for data usage for research purposes. If a research endeavor were ever to take place, each user/surgeon would be directly contacted by the authors through email to introduce the research question, scope and methodology, as well as to obtain explicit permission to use data accrued from their particular experience. This would only be conducted after appropriate Institutional Review Board permission has been obtained. In the event that an approved research protocol may ultimately come to fruition, all data would be displayed in aggregate form.
All PDFs made freely available through this application/site have received appropriate permissions for their use through associated publishers.