National Data Elements for the Clinical Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes
Acute coronary syndromes (ACS) account for more than 25 000 deaths per year in Australia and represent a heavy load on the country's health resources.
Recommendations for electronic data collection, published in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia will lead to better care and better clinical outcomes for this diverse, high-risk group of patients.
The National Data Elements for the Clinical Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes were developed by a working group of the Heart Foundation of Australia and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, in consultation with the public and a number of other interested organisations and professionals.
Principal author of the publication, Associate Professor Derek Chew, Cardiologist at the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, says there's plenty of clinical data available for the management of ACS but the challenge is applying the evidence to clinical practice. But he says data registries are essential if things are to improve.
"A national standard for the data elements used in monitoring the clinical management of patients with ACS would facilitate these efforts," Dr Chew said.
The data will help clinicians and public health decision makers get answers to questions affecting patient care, such as how local patient outcomes compare with national and international statistics, and which therapies provide the greatest cost-effectiveness for the limited resources available.
"This set of data elements does not seek to be all things to all people. Instead, we envisage that users will select smaller sets of elements from the proposed master set to meet the specific local interest or need," Dr Chew said.
"It is important to understand that we do not propose a national database. The collection and quality of clinical and epidemiological data remain the responsibility of the interested individuals or institutions.
"It is hoped that with this nationally standardised set of data elements, people with a need or interest in these data can talk the same language
"The challenge that remains is to incorporate these elements into electronic clinical management tools, thus allowing data collection to shadow clinical care.
Patients will benefit from rapid diagnosis and application of proven therapies and treatments," Dr Chew said.
The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.
CONTACT Dr Derek CHEW 0417 372 439
Judith TOKLEY, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306 / 02 6270 5471