B.I.R.O = better data on diabetes?

Today was the official presentation of the B.I.R.O. project. Professor Massimo Massi Benedetti from the University of Perugia leads this excellent initiative where clinicians and technicians have been working together to create a new international system for benchmarking of quality and outcomes in diabetes.

At the presentation Dr George Olympios explained with enthusiasm the importance the project has for Cyprus and did so by refereeing to what Professor Benedetti continuously have stated during the project: “What we cannot measure we cannot manage effectively”.

Quite a refreshing view in an area where the professionals usually have lots of excuses for why healthcare cannot be measured. And for me it seems like he his very obviously right! How could something as complex and important as healthcare, where the knowledge and conditions have changed so dramatically the last decades due to increased knowledge etc, be managed without benchmarking and measurements?

The whole project is also according to Dr Fabrizio Carinci based on open source software, transparent and done with highest respect for data privacy. A good cocktail for success - especially important since diabetes is an area that in Europe is in a serious need of better data.