A European venous registry: pitfalls and opportunities.
BACKGROUND
Evidence based medicine is not the ideal way to assess and evaluate treatment success, failure and outcomes. Modern technology makes it possible to register a multitude of information. Advances in the venous field are fast and require a more efficient way to allow selection based on outcomes and quality. Registries are theoretically contain the data needed to investigate venous treatments and instruments.


METHODS
A literature review was performed and twenty-five articles were selected for review.


RESULTS
Current registries fail to perform as needed and do not deliver the needed information. Separate frameworks and applications are available, but up until now no centralized and combined effort has been made to create a true all encompassing European venous registry.


CONCLUSIONS
A European venous registry containing standardized variables regarding all aspects of venous disease is needed to truly investigate and improve our care. An intuitive and integrated EHR application can facilitate the gathering of data needed to create such a registry. A number of rules apply though.
Department of Venous Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands fabio@catarinella.nl.
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F
Catarinella
Brightfish B.V., Hoofddorp, The Netherlands.
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Stavast
Department of Venous Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, the Netherlands Department of vascular surgery, Universitäts Klinikum, Aachen, Germany.
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C
Wittens
EHR; EMR; RCT; Venous registry; data collection; data quality