Cardiac Surgery outcomes for adult cardiac patients in the UK have improved significantly since publication of information on death rates, research suggests.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8170618.stm

Research Proposals using the Cardiac Surgery Data

Proposals to use Mass-DAC data must be approved by the Massachusetts Cardiac Surgery Data Registry Publications Committee. Below are the links to the documents needed to begin the proposal process. The Manual of Operations describes the process all data requests must go through to be approved to use the Cardiac Surgery Mass-DAC data. Attachment A is the form that must be filled out and sent to Mass-DAC to start the review process. Send the completed form to mass-dac@hcp.med.harvard.edu for initial review and subsequent review by the other committees.

Manual of Operations for Research Proposals
Form- Proposal for Data Request - Attachment A

Defibrillator may not help many with heart failure
U. S. News & World Report as reported by Health Day, March 16, 2009 – By Ed Edelson
Defibrillators give little help to sicker patients
Reuters UK, March 16, 2009 – By Julie Steenhuysen
Implantable defibrillators, which protect against deadly heart rhythms, may offer little benefit for older people who have other serious health problems at the time of heart failure, U.S. researchers said. Leads author Dr. Soko Setoguchi, Harvard Medical School instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, discusses her team’s findings. The study appears in the recent issues of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/16/defibrilla...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE52F74720090316

To attend the bi-monthly Cardiac Surgery Data Manager's meeting please e-mail Ann Lovett.

Directions and final agenda will be posted closer to the actual meeting date on the Mass-DAC Community Forum's Meetings and Events Forum.

If you have not yet registered with Mass-DAC to access the forums, please click the register button upon entering the Community Forum home page, otherwise login to go directly to the meeting topic.

The bi-monthly Cardiac Surgery Data Manager's meeting will be on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, from 10am to 11am via a conference call, details will be sent to members by e-mail. Please contact Ann Lovett if you are planning to attend.

Directions and final agenda will be posted closer to the actual meeting date on the Mass-DAC Community Forum's Meetings and Events Forum.

If you have not yet registered with Mass-DAC to access the forums, please click the register button upon entering the Community Forum home page, otherwise login to go directly to the meeting topic.

The next Cardiac Surgery Data Manager's meeting will be on Tuesday, April 7, 2009, from 10am to 2pm at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dave Shahian should be able to attend this meeting for about an hour; so collect STS questions and issues! Please contact Ann Lovett if you are planning to attend.

Directions and final agenda will be posted closer to the actual meeting date on the Mass-DAC Community Forum's Meetings and Events Forum. To access the forums, you must already have an account that was created by the Mass-DAC Data Manager.

Mass-DAC List of Published Articles