Importance of a Clinical Quality Registry

Particularly in the Irish context

Clinical Quality Registry is a type of patient registry whose primary purpose is to monitor outcomes and report on quality of care within a specific health service. Quality indicators collected by clinical registries assess whether care is safe and effective and delivered in a timely and appropriate manner and report this back to institutions and/or clinicians.

Although Ireland has a national registry, detailed clinical variables i.e. information regarding specific test results, treatments done, complications, recurrence and patient's quality of life are not pooled and collected nationally. This is a particularly important initiative for prostate cancer patients because despite having a high survival rate, the treatments for this disease can often leave men with long term effects on their urinary, bowel and sexual function. The data collected by IPCOR now allows following patients through their diagnosis, treatment and long term follow up to really understand the support they require and how effective current practices are in managing this disease.

The IPCOR registry also recruits men who are referred for prostate biopsy but do not have prostate cancer. This is because the experiences of patients who test negative on biopsy are an essential component to understanding prostate-related patient pathways.