Irish involvement in European cardiology registry ‘a priority’

Irish cardiologists anticipate a regional pilot of the European-wide cardiac registry EuroHeart in the south/southwest will develop into a national dataset, heard the recent Irish Cardiac Society (ICS) Annual Scientific Meeting and AGM.

Last month’s ICS meeting in Naas, Co Kildare received an update on the development of EuroHeart in Ireland from Prof Peter Kearney, Consultant Cardiologist, Cork University Hospital.

Prof Kearney told attendees that a pilot of the EuroHeart system had commenced implementation in the South/South West Hospital Group and a plan is in place for national expansion.

He also outlined plans to “convene a EuroHeart governance board under the auspices of the Irish Cardiac Society, [with] representatives of stakeholders by specialty and organisation, and inclusive of patient representation”.

Prof Kearney said that there has been an interest in a national cardiology registry within the Society and “among the community of cardiologists north and south for decades”.

He added that while there are some such registries in the Irish health service, these are hospital or regional-based.

“But what we haven’t had is a tied up national registry for the various important cardiac conditions to look at quality of care.”

Irish involvement in a European-wide cardiology registry is a “priority” of the ICS, the Society’s President told this newspaper.

Speaking to the Medical Independent (MI), Prof Pascal McKeown said involvement in the EuroHeart registry would aid research and patient advocacy in Ireland.

He said that national datasets for cardiology in Ireland are needed.

“I think at the moment datasets are quite fragmented; they are quite siloed within individual hospitals,” he told MI.

“The important thing about a registry is that it provides you access to datasets.”

EuroHeart is a European Society of Cardiology initiative based on a collaboration between national registries and in collaboration with national cardiac societies. See full coverage of the ICS Annual Scientific Meeting in the next edition.