The National Audit of Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) in the United Kingdom: Defining the Audit Dataset and Data Collection System

Cureus. 2022 Jun 2;14(6):e25609. doi: 10.7759/cureus.25609. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a debilitating chronic liver disease that progresses to cirrhosis with attendant complications in a substantial proportion of patients. It is a major cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality in the United Kingdom (UK). The British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) published guidelines on PBC management, which included key audit standards. Therefore, we propose the first UK-wide audit of the management of PBC, sanctioned by the BSG and the British Association for Study of the Liver (BASL), to benchmark NHS trusts and health boards against these audit standards as a guide to targeted improvement in the delivery of PBC-related health care.

Keywords: audit; health service research; hepatology; primary biliary cholangitis; quality improvement research.