NCCN Guidelines® vs FRS Risk

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®), is pleased to present the Virtual Library of NCCN Guidelines® app formatted for iPhone & iPad. This easy-to-use and convenient format will further assist health care professionals in their implementation of the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®), thus improving the quality and effectiveness of care provided to patients with cancer. NCCN is a not-for-profit alliance of leading cancer centers devoted to patient care, research, and education. NCCN is dedicated to improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care so patients can live better lives. Through the leadership and expertise of clinical professionals at NCCN Member Institutions, NCCN develops resources that present valuable information to the numerous stakeholders in the health care delivery system. By defining and advancing high-quality cancer care, NCCN promotes the importance of continuous quality improvement and recognizes the significance of creating clinical practice guidelines appropriate for use by patients, clinicians, and other health care decision-makers around the world. Over the past 25 years, NCCN has developed an integrated suite of tools to improve the quality of cancer care. The NCCN Guidelines® document evidence-based, consensus-driven management to ensure that all patients receive preventive, diagnostic, treatment, and supportive services that are most likely to lead to optimal outcomes. The NCCN Guidelines are a comprehensive set of guidelines detailing the sequential management decisions and interventions that apply to 97 percent of cancer cases in the United States. In addition, separate guidelines relate to major prevention and screening topics and another set of pathways focuses on the major supportive care areas. The NCCN Guidelines provide recommendations based on the best evidence available at the time they are derived. Because new data are published continuously, it is essential that the NCCN Guidelines also be continuously updated and revised to reflect new data and new clinical information. The intent of the NCCN Guidelines is to assist in the decision-making process of individuals involved in cancer care—including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, payers, patients and their families—with the ultimate goal of improving patient care and outcomes. The NCCN Guidelines provide recommendations for appropriate care for most but not all patients; however, individual patient circumstances must be considered when applying these recommendations. Visit NCCN.org to learn more about the NCCN Guidelines as well as other NCCN Content.

This multi-faceted application offers surgeons who perform pancreatoduodenectomy a comprehensive and versatile resource regarding pancreatic fistula, including the following features: 1. An easily accessible risk assessment tool with the ability to calculate the threat of developing a clinically-relevant pancreatic fistula in real-time. You can easily enter the four elements of the FRS and obtain an immediate, tailored appraisal of fistula risk, as well as other outcome metrics associated with fistulas. This can be calibrated along broader (FRS risk zones), to basic (FRS number), to very specific (distinct FRS scenarios) terms. 2. A guide to personalized medicine for pancreatic fistula where “best-practice” mitigation techniques are delineated for the specific situation you encounter in the operating room on any given day. This is backed up with detailed explanations and literature summaries regarding their applicability. 3. Your own individual practice data repository. This performance improvement aspect allows you to track updated data regarding your own fistula risk assumption, actual outcomes, and patterns of using various mitigation strategies available to you. In other words, this can form the basis of a performance-assessment strategy for your own personal practice. 4. A thorough, contemporary bibliography regarding pancreatic fistula literature, including the numerous studies done by the Pancreas Fistula Study Group that provide the scientific foundation for the knowledge offered. 5. Direct literature access with quick links to PubMed abstracts for all references. Additionally, free PDFs for select “key papers” are directly accessible. 6. Connection to an hour-long Cold Steel “Masterclass on Pancreatic Fistula” podcast, which provides a big-picture overview by synthesizing the many intriguing concepts influencing this dreaded complication.