Vet Professionals
FAQs
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What is the Canine Cruciate Registry (CCR)?
What does it involve?
1. Discuss the CCR with the owner. You can use the information in the owner information sheet.
2. Either ask for the owner’s permission to email them further information and ask them to follow the instructions in the email to register to take part. To do this,
enter the owner’s email address at the new patient registration form page. This will generate an email to the owner which includes the owner information sheet and the owner registration link, allowing the owner to read the
information and register their dog in their own time,
3. Or the owner can register themselves while at your surgery via the registration page.
During the registration process, the owner will be asked to provide their explicit consent for data collection to take place. The owner will be asked to select their surgeon’s name, and to complete a baseline assessment of their dog using the Liverpool Osteoarthritis in Dogs [*], and Canine Orthopaedic Index (COI)[**] outcome measures. You (as the named surgeon) will then have access to this information via your CCR account.
4. When you perform surgery, you should complete a surgical report form via your CCR account. Doing so will trigger regular emails to the owner, asking them to complete the same LOAD and COI questionnaires and to report any complications. You will be able to view this data from your patients, allowing you to monitor their progress and to perform your own clinical audit. The data is anonymised and submitted to the registry. You can view this anonymised data and compare your results to the registry benchmarks.
5. This platform has been developed to enable clinical audit of patients undergoing cruciate surgery. It is not intended to replace normal routes of communication between both owner and veterinary surgeons, or between veterinary colleagues with regard to the progress of patients post-operatively and complications. Owners participating in this project are reminded that they should contact their vet if they have any clinical concerns about their dog.
- * Walton MB, Cowderoy E, Lascelles D, Innes JF. Evaluation of construct and criterion validity for the ‘Liverpool Osteoarthritis in Dogs’ (LOAD) clinical metrology instrument and comparison to two other instruments. PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58125. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058125. Epub 2013 Mar 7.
- ** Brown, D.C. (2014), The Canine Orthopedic Index. Step 1: Devising the Items. Veterinary Surgery, 43: 232-240. doi.org
How does this help my patient?
Each time the owner completes a follow-up questionnaire, you will be able to see how the dog is doing compared to the average. If the dog is not doing as well as expected following a procedure, the owner can highlight this via the scores they have submitted through the CCR, alerting you to the possible need for re-examination. Your participation will help all dogs needing cruciate surgery in the future, by helping develop better evidence to guide clinical decision making regarding cruciate surgery. We hope this data will help to provide an evidence-base to decide what option is best for each patient, not simply what option is best overall, as decisions are not always straightforward.
How does this benefit me?
Participation in the registry allows enhanced monitoring of your patients following surgery and easily allows you to audit your own outcomes and complications to help with continuous Quality Improvement.
What does it cost?
The registry is free to use for both owners and veterinary surgeons.
Who runs the CCR?
The CCR is funded by RCVS Knowledge, a charity that is dedicated to advancing the quality of veterinary care for the benefit of animals, the public, and society. They are the charity partner of the RCVS. RCVS Knowledge is a separate organisation to the RCVS, and it is governed as such by the RCVS Knowledge Board of Trustees.
The CCR Steering Committee and Advisory Boards provide clinical oversight and guidance for the project. They report to the RCVS Knowledge Quality Improvement Advisory Board, who report to the RCVS Knowledge Board of Trustees. The CCR core data elements captured by the registry have been defined by these groups.
RCVS Knowledge is not a public authority and is therefore not covered by the Freedom of Information Regulations. The registry and online portals are managed on a day-to-day basis by Amplitude Clinical Outcomes, a global leader in online registry software.
Do I need to take part?
You do not need to take part, but we hope we have shown how valuable your participation will be and the benefits it will provide, not only for you but also for establishing an evidence-base in this area. If you would like to participate, we need your consent. You are free to withdraw your consent and request any personal data we hold is removed from the registry. Anonymised data will remain.
How do you obtain my consent?
If you wish to participate in the Canine Cruciate Registry you will be asked to register as a veterinary surgeon on the Registry platform where you will provide your explicit consent electronically.
What personal data do you collect?
We will use your RCVS number to verify that you are a Veterinary Surgeon.
With your consent, we collect the following personal information and process it securely under Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations and UK Data Protection Act 2018.
· Your name
· Your email address and/or telephone number
· Your place of work (which is considered personal information when it is also your personal address)
· Your qualifications/professional status (AVP, Specialist etc.)
· Personal security information, in the form of a question to secure your account.
Can anyone else access my data?
RCVS Knowledge can access your data to administer the registry and provide feedback to the user. Amplitude can access your data to administer the registry. No other organisation will be able to access your identifiable personal information. Anonymised data may be made available to other organisations, for example, academic establishments for research purposes. Each request to access data will be considered on its merits by the registry steering group.
Veterinary Surgeons can nominate other members of their practice team to be their delegates. Delegates are able to enter or edit owner/patient data on behalf of their nominee. Delegates have access to the veterinary surgeon’s records and can update information on their behalf. A delegate can be another veterinary surgeon, veterinary nurse, or members of your administration team.
What happens to my data?
The registry will only use your personal data to allow you to access the platform and to link results to your patients. No third party will have access to your identifiable personal information. The data you provide will be used by the registry to analyse patient care and outcomes across a large number of dogs who have had surgery. For this purpose, submitted data will be anonymised. You will have access to the data about your own patients to evaluate the surgical procedures you perform and assess your patient’s clinical progress. Each individual veterinary surgeon and RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry are joint data controllers; therefore, both are subject to the controller requirements set out under the General Data Protection Regulations. You can see more information about what your roles and responsibilities are as a data controller in the Terms of Use at www.caninecruciateregistry.org. The data processor is Amplitude Clinical Outcomes, our IT partner. To view the levels of security on the platform visit: amplitude-clinical.com/information-governance-information/.
If you are aware of a data breach of any kind, it is your responsibility to inform Amplitude Clinical Outcomes and RCVS Knowledge immediately.
If the data provided by the CCR for more than one account holder is to be used in a publication, the CCR must be able to review the manuscript and must agree on details of the submission; including appropriate authorship, the nomination of a contact person, and details of the review process to be followed for the manuscript. The CCR must be acknowledged as the source of any published data.
In cases where the authors cannot reach a consensus concerning the interpretation of the CCR data, the document shall be circulated to the Registry Committees for discussion and resolution. Using data generated from personal clinical audit for publicity purposes is acceptable. However, results should be updated regularly, and generated using the guidelines available separately on the registry website.
How long will you keep my data?
We will keep your data for as long as you wish to be able to submit cases. Should you wish to opt out, you can do so by emailing Amplitude Clinical Outcomes: customer.support@amplitude-clinical.com
If you no longer take part in the registry, your findings and data will be anonymised, and all traces of your personal data will be deleted. Patient data will be kept indefinitely to ensure consistency and long-term analysis of results.
How long do I need to take part?
There is a lack of high quality, long-term analysis of how dogs do following cruciate surgery; most studies stop recording information after several years at most. We aim to collect data about the outcome for each patient for as long as possible following surgery. We would encourage you to continue to submit cases and owners to respond to future follow-up requests. If you are seeing patients for another reason in the future, you can submit an ad-hoc follow up on their progress. If you know an owner no longer wishes to complete outcome measures, you know they no longer own the dog or, sadly, the dog passes away, you can turn off follow-up requests in the patient’s profile from the registry portal. If you wish to no longer submit cases, you can stop at any time.
Can I withdraw consent?
You can withdraw consent at any time without explanation, after which only anonymised data will remain.
How do I take part?
How can I find out more information?
RCVS Knowledge’s Privacy Policy is available at: knowledge.rcvs.org.uk/rcvs-knowledge-privacy-policy
Any Questions?
If you have any questions regarding the platform itself, including login and password details, your profile on the platform and any other technical questions, please contact Amplitude Clinical Outcomes: customer.support@amplitude-clinical.com / 0333 014 6363 available Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm excluding Bank Holidays.
If you have any questions related to the Canine Cruciate Registry project, please contact: ebvm@rcvsknowledge.org. We will aim to respond to all queries within five working days.
Last updated
10th March 2021
