2019 CHOIR Seminar

At the first CHOIR Seminar of Fall 2019, Associate Professor Oguz Akbilgic, PhD, presented his research on the use of Health Informatics to track adverse surgery outcomes; mortality and morbidity.  

One portion of the study revealed that disparities in adverse surgery outcome is explained with disparities at preoperative risk factors as well as with socioeconomic status. 

By utilizing the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric Participant Use Data File, Akbilgic and his colleges analyzed variables predictive of death within 30 days of surgery to find differences in prevalence and strength of association with death for both African American and white children.  

Network analyses revealed that the prevalence of preoperative risk factors associated with death after surgery was significantly higher for African American than for white children. In addition, many of the risk factors associated with death after surgery carried a higher risk when they occurred in African American children. Race-specific risk models provided high accuracy, with a specificity of 94% and a sensitivity of 83% for African American children and a specificity of 96% and a sensitivity of 77% for white children, and yet these 2 models were significantly different from each other. 

Race-specific models predict outcomes after surgery more accurately compared with non–race-specific models. Identification of race-specific modifiable risk factors may help reduce racial disparities in surgery outcome. 

The next CHOIR Seminar presentation is scheduled for October 7.