Dear MPOG Colleagues,

I hope this newsletter finds you excited about MPOG as we peek around the corner into spring. So much great work is happening at our sites across our QI, research, clinical trials, and subspecialty missions. Thank you to everyone across the country and beyond who participate, especially those who update the Variable Mappings, review the Diagnostics, and Upload their data every month. We are so grateful for those IT Champions and ACQRs (Anesthesiology Clinical Quality Reviewers) responsible for these crucial, foundational tasks.

Nirav Shah

QI Director

Visit the Upcoming Events page on the

MPOG website for information on our 2025 events

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2024 MPOG Retreat in Philadelphia.

Check out the post meeting recap, which includes

presentation slides and recordings!

We are delighted to have Dr. Jaime Hyman from Yale School of Medicine, and Joshua Goldblatt, MSN, RN as our most recent featured members.

Read more about them on our Featured Member page. 



In agreement with PCORI, we increased the trial sample size to 13,000 patients to allow for more conservative statistical methods to detect intraoperative awareness, a rare outcome.



As of January 2024, we randomized over 4,000 participants (30% of total) and continue to see excellent intervention adherence rates and completion rates for primary outcome surveys.

A new version of the MPOG Standardized Data File (SDF) was released in early November. This file includes data from 2018-2023 that contains basic patient demographic information, all current MPOG Quality measures, and over 100 MPOG Phenotypes that will allow researchers to answer a wide variety of questions across nearly 15 million cases. Research teams need to go through the usual proposal process and PCRC approval process to receive access to the SDF, but data delivery is expedited and will happen almost immediately upon final proposal approval. For more information on the SDF, please visit mpog.org/sdf.

We are excited to announce Dr. Alexander Doyal from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dr. Ayesha Bryant from the University of Alabama at Birmingham as our 2025 Outcomes Research Fellows. This one-year fellowship offers researchers close mentorship and engagement within MPOG, culminating in a Practicum Capstone Project utilizing MPOG data.

Alexander Doyal, MD, MPH, FASA is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology in the Division of Liver Transplant and Vascular Anesthesia at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his residency at the University of Virginia and his MPH at UNC. His clinical interests include point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), medical simulation education, and providing care for patients undergoing liver transplant surgery, major vascular surgery, major oncological surgeries, and regional anesthesia.



Dr. Doyal’s research primarily focuses on patient safety and outcomes. During his MPOG fellowship, he will investigate the impact of anesthetic modalities, particularly peripheral nerve blocks, on 30-day mortality following major lower extremity amputations (MLEA). The study aims to evaluate the differential rates of major complications and mortality among patients receiving regional, spinal, or general anesthesia. This research may inform anesthetic practices for MLEA surgical interventions, ultimately improving outcomes for future patients.

Dr. Ayesha Bryant, MSPH, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology &

Perioperative Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine. She earned her MSPH and medical degree from UAB, where she developed a strong clinical interest in cardiothoracic surgery, acute and chronic pain research, and quality of life studies. Dr. Bryant has extensive experience in outcomes research, quality improvement, and perioperative medicine. Her current research interests include leveraging data analytics to enhance patient care in perioperative medicine

Elkhateb R, et al. Neuromuscular Blockade and Antagonism in Patients with Renal Impairment: A Multicenter Retrospective Cross Sectional Study. Anesthesiology. 2025 Feb 10. doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000005411.

Douville NJ, Bastarache L, He J, et al. Polygenic Score for the Prediction of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting: A Retrospective Derivation and Validation Cohort Study Anesthesiology. 2025;142(1):52-71. doi:10.1097/ALN.0000000000005214

Bauer TM, Janda AM, Wu X, et al. Multicenter Analysis of the Relationship Between Operative Team Familiarity and Safety and Efficiency Outcomes in Cardiac Surgery Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. 2024;17(12):e011065. doi:10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.124.011065

Tangel, VE, et al. International multi-institutional external validation of preoperative risk scores for 30-day in-hospital mortality in paediatric patients. Br J Anaesth. 2024 Oct 29:S0007-0912(24)00552-X. 

New Measures:

CARD-04: This is an informational only measure that assesses if patients with cardiac risk had troponin I or troponin T levels documented within 72 hours after Anesthesia End.

ABX-06-OB: This new measure, approved by the OB Subcommittee assess Azithromycin usage in cesarean deliveries. ABX-06 OB- the percentage of unscheduled deliveries in which azithromycin was administered within 60 minutes before incision. 

The Cardiac Subcommittee met in September and December of 2024. CONTRACTION-CS study was presented at the September meeting. At the December meeting, the subcommittee voted to make measure updates to ABX-03-C, ABX-04-C, and to update the measure threshold for AKI-02-C. Meeting minutes can be reviewed on our website.

The next Cardiac Anesthesia Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 14th, 1-2pm EST where TEMP-06-C and TEMP-07-C measures will be reviewed.

All Cardiac Subcommittee meetings are open to all anesthesiologists or those interested in improving cardiothoracic measures, regardless of MPOG Membership. Please contact Dr. Allison Janda if interested in joining!

The MPOG Obstetric Subcommittee is chaired by Dr. Brandon Togioka from OHSU and Vice-Chaired by Dr. Wandana Joshi from Dartmouth. The subcommittee will be meeting on February 26, 2025, to outline its goals for the year. These include developing one or two measures that align with the SOAP Centers for Excellence standards. Additionally, the subcommittee discussed the newly established ABX-06 OB measure, which tracks the percentage of patients who received azithromycin within 60 minutes before surgical incision. This measure applies to cesarean conversion cases- OBAT enumerations 1 and 7. Meeting minutes will be posted to our website under News/Events -> archived events.

After the February meeting, the next MPOG OB Subcommittee meeting is May 14^th at 1pm EST. We plan to update the group on OB specific research projects that colleagues at MPOG sites are working on as well as a Pregnancy Phenotype update.

The Obstetric Anesthesia Subcommittee is open to all providers interested in improving obstetric care. Please contact Nicole Barrios if interested in joining. 

The MPOG Pediatric committee is led by Dr. Vikas O’Reilly-Shah (Seattle Children’s) and Dr. Morgan Brown (Boston Children’s). The committee last met in November 2024 to review the PONV-04-peds measure where several modifications were proposed. Updates to the measure will be considered pending publication of the new 2025 PONV Consensus Guidelines this year (Meeting Summary).

The MPOG pediatric cardiac workgroup met in February and plans on developing a new QI measure that reports the percentage of pediatric patients undergoing cardiac bypass surgery who have an acute kidney injury postoperatively.

The next general pediatric committee meeting is Monday, March 10^th at 4pm eastern time. The agenda includes a review of the neuromuscular dosing measure NMB-03-Peds by Dr. Charles Schrock (St. Louis Children’s). In addition, the committee plans to discuss perioperative glucose management in pediatrics.



All pediatric meetings are open to anyone interested in improving pediatric anesthesia care, regardless of MPOG membership status. Please contact the MPOG Pediatric Program Manager, Meridith Wade, if interested in attending.

Mei and Leanna, we are so excited to have you join our team – looking forward to what’s to come!