BOLD for Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery
SRC developed BOLD™, a proprietary longitudinal outcomes database, to help ensure ongoing compliance with the COE programs it administers and develop general knowledge about optimal practices in surgical care. In 2007, the organization’s first clinical database was created for the bariatric and metabolic surgery specialty. Today, the BOLD bariatric database is the world’s largest and most comprehensive repository of clinical bariatric surgery patient information, with data from more than 400,000 patients. Learn more about the history of BOLD.
Information Captured
Surgeon Participation
Data Ownership and Control
Program and National Summary Reports
COE Compliance and Risk Stratification
Web-Based and Easy to Use
EMR/Practice Management Interface
Security and HIPAA Compliance
Fees and Maintenance
Provider Training
Information Captured
Patient data is collected for all phases of bariatric surgical care, including demographics, comorbidities, medications, procedures, weight loss and maintenance, and complications/ adverse events. Compared to other clinical registries, BOLD is unique in that data is collected during each patient visit and entered directly through the database’s Web interface or captured on hard-copy patient encounter forms.
Surgeon Participation
Provisional participants and designees in the COE programs that SRC administers are required to enter prospective data into BOLD on all bariatric surgery patients. While only participants in the US and Canada currently have access to BOLD, SRC anticipates that all COE participants will ultimately be able to enter their information into the database. BOLD will become accessible as country-specific protocols are developed and approved by the appropriate governing bodies.
Data Ownership and Control
Surgeons who participate in BOLD own and control their data. SRC acts as a firewall between BOLD and third parties to ensure the privacy and confidentiality of surgeon- and patient-specific information is maintained. No surgeon-specific data will ever be released by SRC to a third party without the surgeon’s written consent. Learn more about data access and dissemination requests.
Program and National Summary Reports
Through BOLD, surgeons and their staff gain real-time access to individual patient information that supports clinical decisions. Providers can also obtain meaningful data through numerous daily reports that are based on information from the surgeon’s individual practice. National summary reports enable participants to compare their individual outcomes to aggregate data and assess their approach to care. While information from BOLD will be readily available to surgeons participating in the COE program, surgeon-specific data will not be disclosed without the surgeon’s consent.
To accommodate a variety of provider needs, reports can be exported into several file formats, including Excel, PDF, XML, CSV, TIFF and Web archive.
COE Compliance and Risk Stratification
BOLD measures ongoing compliance and participant performance in the COE programs that SRC administers. Information from BOLD is also used to evolve program requirements based on quality, risk and outcomes.
SRC’s Research (research null@null surgicalreview NULL.org) team is currently using BOLD data to develop risk stratification methodologies that will ultimately help providers select the most appropriate care for each bariatric surgery patient and enable outcomes-based COE program requirements to be established. As participation in BOLD expands internationally, the database will provide key information on different patient populations, bariatric procedures and care options around the world.
Web-Based and Easy to Use
BOLD is a stand-alone software application that can be used whether or not a provider has other health information technology programs. As a Web-based application, BOLD enables surgeons and their staff to access patient information in a secure manner from any computer at any time. The interface features explanations of data entry fields as well as helpful tips.
EMR/Practice Management Interface
While most participants enter data directly into BOLD, data may also be transmitted indirectly through compatible third-party software systems. The database interfaces with many electronic medical record and practice management software applications to reduce or eliminate duplicate data entry.
The following vendors have been approved to transmit data into BOLD:
| - Bariatric Office Products (http://www NULL.bariatricoffice NULL.com/)- Covidien-Seminar2Surgery (http://blueprint NULL.com/bariatrics NULL.html) - CureTrac (http://www NULL.curetrac NULL.com/) - Digital Bariatrics (http://www NULL.digitalbariatrics NULL.com/) - Exemplo Medical (http://www NULL.exemplomedical NULL.com/) - EZ Healthcare (http://www NULL.ez-healthcare NULL.com/) - LapBase (http://www NULL.lapbase NULL.com/) - MDnetSolutions (http://mdnetsolutions NULL.com/default) - NexTech (http://www NULL.nextech NULL.com/) |
- OCERIS (http://www NULL.flexmedical NULL.com/) (http://www NULL.patienthub NULL.com/)- PatientHub (http://www NULL.patienthub NULL.com/) - Patient Relationship Management (http://www NULL.patientrelationship NULL.net/) - Patient Tracking Systems (http://www NULL.bariatrix360 NULL.com) - ProNex (http://www NULL.pronexinc NULL.com/) - Raintree Systems/MDnetSolutions (http://www NULL.prnewsnow NULL.com/Public_Release/Surgery/187737 NULL.html) - RemedyEHR (http://www NULL.remedyehr NULL.com/) - Soft Insite (http://www NULL.thepatienttracker NULL.com/) - TransMed Network (http://www NULL.transmed NULL.net/) |
Regardless of how program participants enter patient data, they must log into BOLD directly to access:
- National summary reports that contain BOLD aggregate benchmark data
- Patient encounter forms that facilitate efficient data entry
Security and HIPAA Compliance
BOLD is hosted at a world-class data center, providing the highest level of data security, guaranteed uptime and disaster recovery available. The database is fully compliant with HIPAA and other patient privacy requirements, and no surgeon-specific data is ever released by SRC to a third-party without the surgeon’s written consent.
SRC recognizes that the laws and regulations governing the collection and electronic transmission of patient information vary from country to country. SRC’s initial legal review indicates BOLD already complies with the regulatory guidelines in place in most nations. Some countries, however, may also require that BOLD is approved by specific governing authorities to ensure that the patient information entered into the database is used in a manner consistent with patient privacy and confidentiality laws. SRC is available to support the efforts of both surgeons and hospitals that must gain approval from local, state or national governing bodies for compliance and/or data analysis purposes. SRC also supports national medical societies in this capacity when appropriate.
Fees and Maintenance
There are no separate fees for BOLD – use is included in the annual COE participation fee. Accessed via the Internet, BOLD does not require the purchase and installation of expensive software or additional hardware. SRC develops, maintains and hosts all of the software so providers do not incur these costs.
Provider Training
SRC provides a comprehensive set of BOLD training tools, including webinars, teleconferences and reference guides. BOLD training materials are currently available only in English – therefore, it’s important that all international participants have a fluent English speaker who can assist them with BOLD training.