Specialized Hospitals in the treatment of congenital heart defects from all over Germany have therefore joined the National Quality Assurance for Congenital Heart Defects to ensure the rapid transfer of treatment and surgical standards.

Nationwide Survey

With the aim of improving patient safety, the National Quality Assurance of Congenital Heart Defects, in cooperation with the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects, have been collecting and evaluating therapeutic activities in pediatric cardiology since 2011. Since then, cardiac surgery and interventional procedures and their outcomes have been evaluated on a nationwide basis for the first time.

The German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG) and the German Society for Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Defects (DGPK) are jointly responsible for the nationwide project.

More Benefit, Less Risk

The data collected as part of the quality assurance measure make it possible to weigh up the benefits and risks of the available procedures and to develop criteria for the use of the different treatment methods.

A crucial prerequisite for the digital collection of data from all over Germany is the pseudonymized collection of personal data in accordance with the data protection regulations of all federal states. The research infrastructure at the Competence Network for Congenital Heart Defects is designed to meet these requirements.

Consistent Digital Recording

In collaboration with the Competence Network, a web-based database for online recording was created, taking into account the legal data protection guidelines.

It is fed by the uniformly recorded data sets of all institutions participating in the National Quality Assurance and is then combined for evaluation. The structure of the data sets defined by the interdisciplinary project group National Quality Assurance of Congenital Heart Defects is based on the existing data collection of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.