Background
The Swedish Heart Failure Registry (SwedeHF) is a National Quality Register, established in 2001 by professor Ulf Dahlström, Linköping and Magnus Edner, Stockholm. Since 2003 it has registered patients with chronic Heart Failure in Sweden.
The Swedish Heart Failure Registry is supported by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) since 2004.
Purpose
The purpose of SwedeHF is to improve the management of patients with Heart Failure by following more strictly guidelines regarding diagnosis and treatment. SwedeHF main job involves activity analysis, clinical quality assurance, clinical improvement work and research, aiming to give each patient optimal care.
The long-term goals are to contribute to reduced mortality and morbidity and increased Quality of Life in patients with Heart Failure. As a result of these efforts we hope to achieve a more cost-effective Heart Failure Care in Sweden.
The database obtained in the registry is an extremely important source for epidemiological research in patients with heart failure.
Patients and methods
The inclusion criterion is clinician-judged HF. Around 70 variables are recorded at discharge from hospital or after clinic visit and entered on-line into a database managed by the Uppsala Clinical Research Center, (Uppsala, Sweden). Individual patients’ data such as age, sex, aetiology, characteristics, diagnostics, selected laboratory values, medical treatment and follow up are registered. Since 2005 patient-reported symptoms and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L) have been included.
During the first year SwedeHF recommend three registrations
- Index
- Within 6 months
- One year after Index
- Thereafter once every year
The database is run against the Swedish death registry monthly. The protocol, registration form, is available at www.swedehf.se
Immediate access through Internet
By participating in the registry the participating units have
- Immediate data entry over Internet or data transfer from local databases
- Immediate access to information about all previously registered patients
- Immediate access to reports, lists and statistical analyses of selected patient groups in comparison to the average of other participating hospitals or primary health care centres.