Revalidation and retinal detachment.

Proposed changes in the medical regulatory environment in the UK will shortly introduce a system of revalidation of individual doctors, and this will include the regular and mandatory collection of treatment outcomes. Comparison of such outcomes requires an agreed set of items (a dataset) as well as an efficient method of collecting it, preferably electronically. Such a dataset must be large enough to encompass details on case mix to make comparisons valid, but small enough to be practical. There are considerable benefits of pooling outcome data for improved clinical care, research and education.