title: Databases for assessing the outcomes of the treatment of patients with congenital and paediatric cardiac disease--the perspective of cardiac surgery.
abstract: This review includes a brief discussion, from the perspective of cardiac surgeons, of the rationale for creation and maintenance of multi-institutional databases of outcomes of congenital heart surgery, together with a history of the evolution of such databases, a description of the current state of the art, and a discussion of areas for improvement and future expansion of the concept. Five fundamental areas are reviewed: nomenclature, mechanism of data collection and storage, mechanisms for the evaluation and comparison of the complexity of operations and stratification of risk, mechanisms to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the data, and mechanisms for expansion of the current capabilities of databases to include comparison and sharing of data between medical subspecialties. This review briefly describes several European and North American initiatives related to databases for pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery the Congenital Database of The European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, the Congenital Database of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Pediatric Cardiac Care Consortium, and the Central Cardiac Audit Database in the United Kingdom. Potential means of approaching the ultimate goal of acquisition of long-term follow-up data, and input of this data over the life of the patient, are also considered.
authors.affiliation: Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19073, USA. marshall.jacobs@comcast.net
authors.forename: Marshall Lewis
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Jeffrey Phillip
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Rodney C G
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Franklin
authors.forename: Constantine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mavroudis
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lacour-Gayet
authors.forename: Christo I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Tchervenkov
authors.forename: Hal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Walters
authors.forename: Emile A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Bacha
authors.forename: David Robinson
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: William Gaynor
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Spray
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stellin
authors.forename: Tjark
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ebels
authors.forename: Bohdan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Maruszewski
authors.forename: Zdzislaw
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tobota
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kurosawa
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elliott
mesh_terms: D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards*; D005060:Europe; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000601:surgery; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014481:United States