[Establishment of a database on health care outcomes studies]

In 1992 a European initiative called the European Clearing Houses on Health Outcomes (ECHHO) was started in the UK. Its objectives in Spain were to establish a database for those projects on the evaluation of results from clinical practice developed from 1990 onward and linked with those from other European countries, and to disseminate this initiative in our area.

The project was based on the identification of studies initiated from 1990 onward and the establishment of a database available on the World Wide Web. The Annals of the Health Investigation Fund (FIS) from 1990 to 1995 were revised and professionals who were developing clinical investigation activities were contacted. The inclusion criteria for the studies encompassed: the evaluation of the results from patients' health care, the utilization of indicators in initiatives or evaluations on the quality of health care or on the effectiveness of health care interventions, as well as the validation and development of measures for health status.

The database is available at http:¿www.cspt.es/ecltho. A total of 139 projects have been identified from the Annals of the FIS and 59 from other contacts. The majority (105 projects) corresponded to effectiveness studies and 29 to studies of the development or validation of instruments, mainly in patients with oncological, cardiovascular, or chronic respiratory diseases, but also in the general patient population.

Research on health care outcomes in Spain is a matter of interest. Information systems should form part of a stable strategy with responsibility on research.