National Quality Assurance gets off to a good start

After a two-year pilot phase, the German National Quality Assurance of Congenital Heart Defects started on 1 October 2011. Since that date, clinics throughout Germany have been entering data on operations and interventions on patients with congenital heart defects into a central database. The main objective of this measure is to evaluate the treatment methods applied to various heart defects and to assess treatment results following interventions. The German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG) and the German Society for Paediatric Cardiology (DGPK) are responsible for the Quality Assurance, and the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects is providing the infrastructure for its implementation.

“The Quality Assurance is a milestone in the treatment of patients with congenital heart defects and will contribute to the continuous improvement in the treatment of these people,” states Professor Friedrich Wilhelm Mohr, President of the DGTHG. “This measure makes it possible to evaluate the progress of treatments, consider the benefits and risks of different procedures, and draw up well-founded criteria for deciding on the various treatment options,” explains Professor Felix Berger, President of the DGPK. Around 12,000 operations and therapeutic interventions are carried out on children, adolescents and adults with congenital heart defects each year in Germany – most of them in infancy.
 
To the website of the German National Quality Assurance of Congenital Heart Defects