AAO-HNS Bulletin | Special Edition | January 2021

30 SPECIAL EDITION: 125TH ANNIVERSARY AAO-HNS BULLETIN ENTNET.ORG/BULLETIN The Evolution of Quality Cecelia E. Schmalbach, MD, MSc AAO-HNSF Coordinator for Research and Quality T he AAO- HNS/F underwent rapid growth in the quality arena over the past 20 years, increasing our ability to identify gaps in care and prioritizing topics to improve patient safety, reduce error, and improve outcomes. In 2005 a respected clinical practice guidelines protocol was developed and published. As successful leaders in guideline development and implementing quality initiatives, the Foundation has been instrumental in the role medical societies play in improving quality through evidence-based medicine, guidelines development, and implementation. Our clinical practice guidelines’ key action statements served as the basis for initial measure development efforts beginning in the early 2000s, and these efforts have evolved into a full measure development effort resulting in 22 specialty-specific quality measures available to otolaryngologists and their practices. With the early work of the Research Advisory Board, collaboration with Duke Clinical Research Institute’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders grant for CHEER (Creating Healthcare Excellence through Education and Research), and continuing contributions from the AAO-HNS/F Patient Safety/Quality Improvement and Outcomes Research and Evidence-based Medicine Committees, we were well poised to create a quality and research infrastructure for: 1) support of the rising need for an otolaryngology- specific clinical data registry, Reg-ent SM , 2) implementation of our evidence-based guidelines, 3) development of quality measures, and 4) facilitation of multisite studies to contribute to the evidence base. The AAO-HNS/F started work in the registry domain in early 2000, initially with the development of a clinical registry pilot (COGENT). The AAO-HNS/F also participated in the American College of Surgeons’ (ACS) Surgical Quality Alliance efforts aimed at creating a unified, surgical specialty registry in 2009. The AAO-HNS/F invested resources strategically to establish a best-in-class clinical practice guidelines (CPG) development infrastructure and then performance measures development building upon its clinical practice guidelines expertise. James C. Denneny III, MD, AAO-HNS/F Executive Vice President and CEO recognized early on the important role of data as the key to demonstrating the value of care provided by AAO-HNS members and an ever-increasing need for data reflective of the disease conditions treated by the specialty. With the