EACTS NEWS
QUIP
SIGN UP TO THE NEW ADULT CARDIAC DATABASE EACTS is encouraging hospitals and national registries to sign up to the new Adult Cardiac Database (ACD) and start submitting data that will help drive quality improvements in cardiac surgery. The Adult Cardiac Database is a collaborative registry and benchmarking tool of anonymised cardiac surgical data for centres across Europe. Use of this data allows surgeons to better understand clinical practice in their hospitals and inform best practice and research. The National Cardiology Hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, is one of the first hospitals to contribute cardiac data to the new Adult Cardiac Database. Commenting on the hospital's involvement, Head of Department, Dimitar Kyuchukov, said, "We are privileged to be part of this wonderful initiative and to have contributed to this important database. Data sharing in healthcare has numerous benefits, significantly enhancing patient care, research and the overall efficiency of health systems. It enables healthcare providers to have a more complete view of a patient’s health history, leading to better-informed decisions and more comprehensive and personalised care. “In addition, data sharing can significantly speed up medical research by providing researchers with a larger pool of information to study disease patterns, treatment outcomes, and public health trends. It also facilitates collaboration across borders, which is essential in handling global health issues.”
Edgar Daeter, Chair of the QUIP Committee
Advancing the field of cardiothoracic surgery Launched at this year’s Annual Meeting, the new ACD will: • Bring participating hospitals, national registries and surgeons together to advance the field of cardiothoracic surgery through comparative data analysis and sharing of best practice. • Provide information to support surgical training and inform evidence-based practice for current and future cardiothoracic surgeons. • Provide a controlled access mechanism for researchers to request access to the data, regulated by a scientific committee and in line with established governance frameworks. Researchers’ proposals need to have clear patient benefit. • Maximise the wealth of data already available, recorded at all stages of patient care, by enabling consistent and standardised collection from different sources, helping surgeons to improve their clinical practice.