Original Article
The Foundation and Launch of the Melbourne Interventional Group: A Collaborative Interventional Cardiology Project

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The Melbourne Interventional Group (MIG) is a voluntary collaborative venture of interventional cardiologists practicing at 12 major public and private hospitals in Victoria, designed to record data pertaining to percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) and perform long-term follow-up. The potential advantages of collaboration involve large-scale analysis of current interventional strategies (e.g. drug-eluting stents, evaluation of new technologies and cost-effective analysis), provide a basis for multi-centred clinical trials and allow comparison of clinical outcomes with cardiac surgery. The established registry documents demographic, clinical and procedural characteristics of consecutive patients undergoing PCI and permits analysis of those characteristics at 30 days and 12 months. The registry is co-ordinated by the Centre of Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE), a research body within the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (Monash University, Melbourne). The eventual goal of MIG is to provide a contemporary appraisal of Australian interventional cardiology practice, with opportunities to improve in-hospital and long-term outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease.

Introduction

The ability to record clinical data pertaining to interventional coronary angioplasty procedures is the foundation for evaluating future outcomes. In Australia, the majority of institutions collect information for local use only, with varied data elements collected and variable definitions used. At present, no uniform data collection or clinical follow-up exists, indicating a need for a large-scale collaborative group. Multicentre data collection has proven to be a useful tool in examining short and long-term success, with an ability to identify variables associated with higher risks. These variables can ultimately be used to develop predictive risk-adjusted multivariate models.1, 2, 3, 4 Cardiology registries also address the gap between the highly selected type of patient enrolled in randomised clinical trials and real-world practice.5 Retrospective analyses also bring in to play problems of missed data and recall bias; hence, prospective data collection via a central standardised registry is essential.

The Melbourne Interventional Group is a collaborative venture to record current interventional coronary procedures and perform longer term follow-up. This model is similar to the established Cardiac Surgical database (Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons).6, 7 The potential advantages of collaboration involve large-scale analysis of current interventional strategies (e.g. drug-eluting stents, evaluation of new technologies and cost-effective analysis), provide a basis for multi-centred clinical trials and allow comparison of clinical outcomes with our surgical colleagues.

Section snippets

Aims of Melbourne Interventional Group

The goals of MIG are twofold: (1) To establish a collaborative coronary angioplasty registry with 30-day and 12-month clinical follow-up and (2) facilitation of multi-centred randomised clinical trials targeted at interventional cardiology. The development and implementation of the registry appears critical as it provides a basis for performing clinical trials. The eventual goal of MIG is to provide a contemporary appraisal of Australian interventional cardiology practice, with opportunities to

Establishing a Dataset

MIG case report forms are designed to document detailed demographic, clinical and procedural characteristics and current interventional practice patterns for patients undergoing PCI in Victoria (Supplementary data, Appendix B). Additionally, we aim to document medical therapy in the peri-procedural period. These factors are analysed with reference to in-hospital and 12-month clinical outcomes.

The four-page standardised data abstraction form was developed by a database working group within MIG.

Conclusions

The MIG collaborative group comprising a broad range of Victorian hospitals will provide an insight into contemporary Australian interventional Cardiology practice. The established registry documents demographic, clinical and procedural characteristics of consecutive patients undergoing PCI and permits analysis of those characteristics at 30 days and 12 months. The collaborative venture will facilitate multi-centred randomised clinical trials targeted at interventional cardiology. Ultimately,

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Prof. Andrew Tonkin for his support and guidance. We wish to also thank Mr. Gil Shardey and Mr. Peter Skillington, representing the Cardiac Surgical Database (Australasian Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons), for allowing concepts used within their Ethics Committee application to facilitate our applications. Dr. Duffy is supported by a Career Development Award (No. 182830) from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

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