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The Swedish Web-system for Enhancement and Development of Evidence-based care in Heart disease Evaluated According to Recommended Therapies (SWEDEHEART) was launched in December 2009 after merging the Register of Information and Knowledge About Swedish Heart Intensive Care Admissions (RIKS-HIA), the Swedish Coronary Angiography and Angioplasty Registry (SCAAR), the Swedish Heart Surgery Registry and the National Registry of Secondary Prevention (SEPHIA). RIKS-HIA was developed as a regional registry in the beginning of the 1990s and was established as a national quality register in 1995. SEPHIA was added to RIKS-HIA in 2005 to register the effects of secondary prevention efforts in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). SCAAR was formed in 1998 after a merge of a national angioplasty and a coronary angiography registry, which had been started in the early 1990s by the university hospitals and the smaller hospitals performing coronary angiography. The Swedish Heart Surgery Registry was formed in 1992 for a better review of Swedish heart surgery and a comparison of results between centres.
SWEDEHEART is a national registry of all patients hospitalised for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or undergoing coronary or valvular intervention for any indication. By merging the four original registries, the whole process of care is kept together and data are entered in one web-based case report form even if the patient is transferred between different units and hospitals. Redundant entering of the same variables is avoided. Every hospital in Sweden providing the relevant services participates except for the secondary prevention part, which so far has been started in 60 out of 74 hospitals. Åland (a region of Finland) joined RIKS-HIA in 2005 and Iceland has been a part of the SCAAR registry since 2008. Both have now also joined the SWEDEHEART registry although their data are kept separate from the Swedish data for the national reviews.
Organisation and funding
SWEDEHEART is led by a steering group, consisting of the chairmen of the working groups of the original four registries and representatives from the Swedish Heart Association and the Swedish Society of Cardiac Nursing. There are four working groups: one for acute cardiac care (RIKS-HIA); one for angiography and angioplasty (SCAAR); one for heart surgery and one for secondary prevention. Uppsala Clinical Research Centre (UCR; http://www.ucr.uu.se ), the developer of the...