Assuring quality in HPB surgery--efficacy and safety.

Surgical innovations have made enormous contributions towards the welfare of patients when they have been appropriate, effective and applied with expertise and overall care. However, the potential for advancement and for harm of new surgical techniques, and the level of expertise necessary for their safe introduction, are not always immediately apparent. Furthermore, it is difficult and time-consuming to assess the efficacy and safety of new procedures in the clinical setting. In 1998 the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons established ASERNIP-S, the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New and Interventional Procedures-Surgical, to help ensure that new technologies that are being introduced are well proven in concept, are as safe and effective as possible, and are utilized with high levels of skill underpinned by the level of training.