10 Years of the National Echo Database of Australia (NEDA): A Nationwide Research Platform Designed for Collaboration

This review discusses the achievements of the National Echo Database of Australia (NEDA), a unique Australian resource facilitated by a collaborative nationwide approach and a common purpose to improve understanding of heart diseases through the gathering and analysis of big data. It is a first of its kind world-wide, with >2.1 million echocardiograms on >1.2 million individuals, linked to other national databases reporting outcomes. This article provides an overview of the methodological structure and function of NEDA, and an analysis of NEDA's clinical impact. In the first 10 years of NEDA's existence, it has undergone three large-scale expansions and data linkages and generated 57 high impact studies with a combined citation index >1,100. Beyond its impact on guidelines, NEDA has driven practice change and contributed to changes in global cardiac care. Future directions for NEDA include an emphasis on objectively measuring clinical quality of echocardiography, evaluating its prognostic utility and providing real-world data on Australian cardiac health. Its engagement with digital health and artificial intelligence techniques broaden new avenues of cardiac innovation on a global level.