Implementation of a Victorian Cardiac Surgery Database

The Victorian Cardiac Surgery Database project will be jointly developed and delivered by Melbourne Information Management and the Baker Medical Research Institute. After a pilot phase involving one hospital, all Victorian public hospitals with cardiac surgery units will provide data for developing and testing the Cardiac Surgery Database. In the initial proposal, the period of data collection is from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2002. Issues being addressed in preparation for the implementation phase are those of ownership, management and administration of the Database as well as taxation, liability and governance. Completeness and accuracy of the data collection process and the maintenance of confidentiality are prime considerations in the implementation phase of the project.