Definition of Cardiac Surgery Cohort

Cardiac Surgery refers to surgery on the heart and the thoracic great vessels performed on persons 18 years of age and older. Examples of Cardiac surgery include coronary artery bypass grafts, heart valve repair or replacement, heart transplantation, surgery of the thoracic aorta, repair of congenital heart defects and minimally invasive heart surgery.

Reporting and Data Submissions Timelines
All Massachusetts hospitals that perform cardiac surgery will submit patient and surgeon specific data to Mass-DAC every six months. In January of each year, an annual report of the latest cleaned and adjudicated fiscal year (October-September) is prepared by Mass-DAC and approved for release by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Click this timeline summary (pdf), updated July 18, 2011, to download the most recent document for the data submission harvest, adjudication periods and reporting date for the next several report periods. For more details on Mass-DAC policies and regulations, please download the, Mass-DAC Policy document.

Project Forms
Contact Update Form - (Updated Aug 2, 2010) Please use this form to add, update, or terminate a person from one of the Mass-DAC project roles at your hospital. You may either e-mail the form to the Mass-DAC Program Manager or fax it to Ann Lovett at 617-432-5428.

STS Software Version, 2002 to Present
Summary table by quarter showing version changes (pdf)

Cardiac Surgery Committees
Click here to view all Cardiac Surgery Committees.

Definition Clarification Discussions
Discussions about the Mass-DAC and STS field definitions and data can be found on the Mass-DAC Community Forums. You must be registered to login and view/participate in the discussions. Click here to go to the forum home login/register page.