SUMMARY
The research interests of Dorin T. Colibaseanu, M.D., focus on surgical quality measurement and improvement in health care delivery at the enterprise, regional and national level.
Dr. Colibaseanu works with a team of like-minded researchers that include oncologists, gastroenterologists, surgeons, statisticians and colleagues from the Department of Health Sciences Research at Mayo Clinic.
Focus areas
- Quality of surgical care in the state of Florida. Dr. Colibaseanu's team is currently researching the factors associated with surgical outcomes at the provider and patient level for colorectal cancer and diverticulitis in Florida. The goal is to identify the factors associated with providing high-quality surgical delivery in the ethnically and economically diverse state. Dr. Colibaseanu hopes this detailed data could help drive the formation of a statewide collaborative — similar to the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative — that would coordinate initiatives to improve the surgical care of these diseases.
- Outcomes of the surgical diabetic population at Mayo Clinic. Mayo has developed an enterprisewide algorithm of managing patients with diabetes who are undergoing elective surgery in an effort to improve perioperative glycemic control, which has been demonstrated to reduce postoperative complications. Dr. Colibaseanu and collaborators are currently investigating the surgical outcomes in the diabetic population to better understand the contribution of this new management strategy. The goal is to inform the enterprise of protocol on relative impact, as well as possible enhancements, in specific high-risk surgical populations.
- Recurrent rectal cancer. Treatment of recurrent rectal cancer is especially challenging because of the poorly understood biology of the disease, the optimal resource allocation required for treatment, and the multidisciplinary expertise and coordination necessary. There is currently a lack of clarity at the national level regarding the precise treatment algorithm, both in design and organization, due to the limited number of institutions that treat these patients. Dr. Colibaseanu and other colorectal surgeons at the three Mayo Clinic campuses combine the data from all patients treated for this condition spanning the last two decades to propose a treatment algorithm for recurrent rectal cancer in the United States.
Significance to patient care
The systematic analysis of the quality of the care currently delivered (at institutional, regional or national level) allows providers and researchers to improve that care intentionally and specifically by devising improved care delivery tools and, if necessary, policy changes to improve the care delivery in both terms of quality and equity. The ultimate goals are to improve and standardize the care delivered to maximize quality, value and equity in health care delivery for these surgical conditions.