title: Design and methodology of the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study (STCS): a comprehensive prospective nationwide long-term follow-up cohort.
abstract: In Switzerland, organ procurement is well organized at the national-level but transplant outcomes have not been systematically monitored so far. Therefore, a novel project, the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study (STCS), was established. The STCS is a prospective multicentre study, designed as a dynamic cohort, which enrolls all solid organ recipients at the national level. The features of the STCS are a flexible patient-case system that allows capturing all transplant scenarios and collection of patient-specific and allograft-specific data. Beyond comprehensive clinical data, specific focus is directed at psychosocial and behavioral factors, infectious disease development, and bio-banking. Between May 2008 and end of 2011, the six Swiss transplant centers recruited 1,677 patients involving 1,721 transplantations, and a total of 1,800 organs implanted in 15 different transplantation scenarios. 10 % of all patients underwent re-transplantation and 3% had a second transplantation, either in the past or during follow-up. 34% of all kidney allografts originated from living donation. Until the end of 2011 we observed 4,385 infection episodes in our patient population. The STCS showed operative capabilities to collect high-quality data and to adequately reflect the complexity of the post-transplantation process. The STCS represents a promising novel project for comparative effectiveness research in transplantation medicine.
authors.affiliation: Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland. michael.koller@usb.ch
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: van Delden
authors.forename: Nicolas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lovis
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Marti
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fehr
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Binet
authors.forename: Sabina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Geest
authors.forename: Heiner C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Bucher
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meylan
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pascual
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steiger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012107:Research Design; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013557:Switzerland; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014180:Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
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