Sweden: coronary and structural heart interventions from 2010 to 2015

Sparsely populated and with wide non-urbanised areas, Sweden faces specific challenges in providing publicly financed, high-quality and equal healthcare to all parts of the country. As a result, a decentralised organisation for acute coronary care has been developed with coronary care units and catheterisation laboratories in several small- and medium-sized city areas. In contrast, highly specialised non-emergent interventional procedures are centralised to a few high-volume centres, mainly located at university hospitals in large city areas. Nationwide quality registries with nearly complete coverage facilitate healthcare quality improvement and form a basis for clinical research. In this report, we present an overview of demographics, healthcare organisation, quality registries and procedural data for coronary and structural heart interventions in Sweden over the past six years.