Disease-specific outcomes assessment for gastrointestinal bleeding

Over the past twenty years, outcomes research has emerged as a methodology to systematically evaluate medical practice and outcomes of care. The assessment of outcomes in clinical practice can improve the quality of care delivered to patients. More specifically, improved quality can be realized by identifying endoscopic practices that are cost-efficient, by reducing the variability of endoscopic interventions, and by eliminating those endoscopic interventions that appear to be ineffective. The aims of this article are to provide practical information to the practicing endoscopist on which outcomes are important to measure in patients with gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and to detail methods of how to accomplish this.