The American Society of Breast Surgeons (ASBrS) offers a website-based program, known as the Mastery of Breast Surgery, to its members. The program was designed “to help surgeons document their clinical performance of breast procedures, as well as their care of breast cancer patients and patients at risk for breast cancer.”

The ASBrS in support of the belief that to measure is to improve has created the framework to be transparent in measuring as many outcomes as possible, leading to the best quality medicine breast surgeons can practice. Portions of the Mastery of Breast Surgery site allow quality tracking, which has been recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of a qualified clinical data registry.

The Mastery of Breast Surgery site also provides the following:

• Risk assessment that can be used to determine if individual patients will benefit from genetic counseling and testing
• Educational portals for sharing recent medical advancements with opportunities for continuing medical education (CME)
• Tracking of operative experience for Maintenance of Certification (MOC) requirements related to maintaining board certification
• Research data collection, including a registry for nipple-sparing mastectomies
• A patient satisfaction survey

This data collection system, which was developed in 2007 by ASBrS Past President Dr. Eric Whitacre and his son, Thomas, was one of the first to be implemented by a surgical society and is now a leading system in the country. Currently 115,000 cancers and 440,000 patients have been entered into the website by over 1,300 surgeons. This powerful tool is being used to advance the treatment of our patients.