From CEMD to CEMACH to CMACE to...? Where now for the confidential enquiries into maternal deaths?

摘要

In this issue of Anaesthesia, the work of Pagel and Hudetz on 'scholarly productivity' of US anaesthesiologists, using the 'h-score' [1], coincides with an article using the same measure for UK anaesthetists [2]. How best to measure academic productivity? Measuring clinical productivity is relatively easy: anaesthetists are locatable to the operating theatre (or pain clinic, labour ward or intensive care unit). Notwithstanding quality outputs such as pain scores, satisfaction, etc., the clear time-based metric underpins UK consultant contracts ('programmed activities') and facilitates workload calculations [3]. Time-based analyses can assess shortfalls in staffing in anaesthetic departments [4], and measure efficiency [5] and productivity across specialities [6, 7].