Why Australia needs a Cardiac Procedures Database.

The development of a national cardiac procedures database is in the interest of many groups: cardiac surgeons and interventional cardiologists, participating hospital units, patients, governments, health insurance funds and industry. To date, information about short-term outcomes of coronary interventions has been fragmented and uncoordinated at state and national levels. Long-term outcomes have not yet been systematically addressed in Australia. A highly desirable objective is the development of a dataset of information that is pertinent to the Australian context, with common minimum datasets for surgery and percutaneous intervention. Information will gain added value if it is linked to other national databases such as the National Death Index. Also, risk adjustment should be used to improve the value of outcome data. Development of a 'common' Cardiac Procedures Database, in turn, should lead to improved health policy and better health management in an area that currently runs at significant cost. Thus, provided due care is taken to protect the privacy of stakeholders, maintain quality control and entry of only valid information into the database, the resulting outcome will benefit all interested parties; clinicians, hospitals, patients and the wider Australian community.