The potential role of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in a National Cardiac Surgery Database

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has responsibility for developing national health information and collections and is thus a candidate for building and operating a National Cardiac Surgery Database. Many functional characteristics place the Institute in a favourable position for establishing and maintaining a national patient-based database of cardiac surgery. These include its experience in the field of database management, its record of objectivity and its capacity to provide data protection. In addition it has significant experience in monitoring cardiovascular diseases, their risk factors, treatments and outcomes through its National Centre for Monitoring Cardiovascular Disease. The Institute, a statutory body operating within the Federal Government's health portfolio, is independent of policy, administrative and regulatory functions within that portfolio. The health-related databases managed by the Institute include those that record national statistics on insulin-treated diabetes, hospital separations, cancer and death. The Institute also maintains, on behalf of the National Heart Foundation, a cardiac surgery register based on aggregated data from cardiac units. This register is not patient based as the new database would be. With this range of experience, the Institute sees itself well placed to contribute to the development of this important project.