The design and rationale of the Australian Cooperative National Registry of Acute Coronary care, Guideline Adherence and Clinical Events (CONCORDANCE)

Background: Cardiovascular observational registries characterise patients and describe the manner and use of therapeutic strategies. They facilitate analyses on the quality of care among participating institutions and document variations in clinical practice which can be benchmarked against best practice recommendations. The Cooperative National Registry of Acute Coronary care, Guideline Adherence and Clinical Events (CONCORDANCE) is an Australian observational registry that describes management and outcomes in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and feeds back both performance and outcome measures to participating hospitals.

Methods: The CONCORDANCE registry has been designed within a comparative effectiveness research (CER) framework to collect and report data from hospitals located in geographically diverse regions of Australia. Information including patient demographics, presenting characteristics, past medical history, in-hospital management and outcomes at six months and two years are entered into a web-based database using an electronic clinical record form (eCRF). Individual hospital information is returned to the sites in a real time confidential report detailing information on key performance indicator (KPI) process measures and outcomes benchmarked against the aggregated study cohort. Governance rules ensure data security and protect patient and clinician confidentiality. Consistent with a CER framework, additional characteristics of the registry include: (a) the capacity to evaluate associations between the inter and intra hospital systems and the provision of evidence based care and outcomes, (b) ongoing data collection from representative hospitals which allow spatial and temporal analysis of change in practice and the application of treatment modalities in the real world setting and (c) the provision of a data spine for quality improvement strategies and practical clinical trials.

Conclusion: The CONCORDANCE registry is a clinician-driven initiative describing clinical care for ACS patients admitted to Australian hospitals. The registry generates high quality data which is fed back to clinicians, and key stakeholders in ACS care. Using a CER approach, the registry describes the translation of randomised trial evidence into practice, and provides insights into strategies that could improve care and ultimately patient outcomes.