The MBSAQIP is going viral! 194 hits and still going strong

The Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP) first released its Participant Use Data File in 2015. Since then, surgeons have eagerly evaluated data now available on >750,000 patients, and a yearly increase in the number of publications using the Participant Use File was anticipated.

To evaluate the impact of the MBSAQIP in surgical literature.

University surgical department, United States.

A literature search was performed to identify articles published using the MBSAQIP database up to March 2019. PubMed, Clinical Key (both indexed for MEDLINE), and Cochrane databases were queried using the keywords "MBSAQIP" and "Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program." Abstracts presented at ObesityWeek, SAGES, and the Clinical Congress of the ACS in 2016 to 2019 were also examined. Duplicates, letters to the editor, commentaries, statements, and position pieces were excluded. Articles describing projects that used MBSAQIP data to study <5 accredited centers were also excluded.

As of March 2019, there were 114 results in PubMed, 216 results in Clinical Key, and 0 in Cochrane using the search terms. Additionally, 184 abstracts were included from the journal supplements from ObesityWeek, SAGES, and the Clinical Congress of the ACS. After elimination of duplicates, there were 327 total results. After exclusions, 55 published manuscripts and 126 abstracts remained.

The MBSAQIP is a resounding success. A substantial body of research has already been produced from it and is growing with time. Gaps in current knowledge are being targeted through analyses of this single, large-scale database. The MBSAQIP will remain a valuable leading resource in metabolic and bariatric surgery.