The Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database: 2025 Annual Update

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database (GTSD) is the largest and most comprehensive clinical registry for thoracic surgical procedures worldwide. Designed to provide risk-adjusted benchmarking, support quality improvement, and advance research, the GTSD now houses >800,000 records from >300 participating sites. The 2025 annual update highlights several key developments. A major revision of the data collection form reduced abstraction burden while introducing new variables to support long-term outcome modeling. Web-based risk calculators for pulmonary resection and esophagectomy were launched in 2024, and long-term risk models were introduced in 2025. Procedural trends reflect the continued rise of minimally invasive and robotic-assisted techniques, accompanied by improved outcomes across morbidity and mortality measures. The star rating system has been retired in favor of more nuanced risk-adjusted metrics. The Access and Publications program, Participant User File program, and Task Force on Funded Research continue to ensure data reliability and facilitate broad scientific output. Collectively, these initiatives reinforce the GTSD's role as both a cornerstone of quality improvement and a driver of new knowledge in thoracic surgery, advancing surgical excellence and patient outcomes.