Rhineland-Palatinate Myocardial Infarction Registry
First Results
Having completed Phase III of the Rhineland-Palatinate Myocardial Infarction Registry (MIR-RLP), a press conference was held at the premises of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Labor, Health and Demography in Mainz to present first results to the public.
Did the quality of care of patients suffering from acute myocardial infarction improve thanks to regional conferences in which data of the first data collection period were presented and discussed with hospitals and emergency medical services on site? It turned out that these actions resulted in emergency medical services driving acute MI patients rather to hospitals including cathlabs than other clinics. And more often, ECGs essential for diagnosis had already been performed prior to hospital admittance. This resulted in the average time from admittance to the treating hospital to performance of the catheterization being reduced. An overall reduction of hospital mortality of MI patients from 9% (pre-action) to 7.6% during Phase III (post-action) was observed. Despite the fact that these numbers may not meet the requirements for statistical evidence, the Ministry, responsible physicians and Stiftung IHF consider the findings a great success and will do their very best to see the project continued.