Big data provides insights into cardiovascular care post-hospitalisation

Cardiologists from the Central Adelaide Local Health Network and the Data to Decisions CRC (D2D CRC) are collaborating on a groundbreaking study into cardiovascular care, using over 100 million healthcare records from more than 1000 hospitals.

The project ‘Observing Recurrent Incidence of adverse Outcomes following hospitalisatioNs’ (ORION), funded by the Heart Foundation and the SA Department of State Development, has enabled a nationwide assessment of outcomes of hospital-based cardiovascular care for common conditions and procedures using big data analysis. It is being run by cardiologist and Heart Foundation Future Fellow Dr Isuru Ranasinghe.

“Treatments for conditions such as heart attacks and heart failure are complex, expensive and have far-reaching consequences for patients, yet we know little about what happens to patients after they leave the hospital,” Dr Ranasinghe said. “How many people survive? How many are readmitted to hospitals? Without such basic information, it is challenging for doctors and hospitals to know if the resources they spend lead to meaningful benefits for patients.”

As explained by Dr Ranasinghe, “The ORION study links together data already collected by hospitals, to develop inexpensive methods to illuminate the end results of cardiovascular care nationally.” The study has so far identified mortality, readmission and complication rates, as well as variation in outcomes among hospitals.

“For example, we found that about one in 10 patients hospitalised for heart failure nationally die within first 30 days of admission and almost a quarter are re-hospitalised in the first month after discharge,” Dr Ranasinghe revealed. “These poor outcomes show how much work we still have to do to improve patient care.”

The study seeks to target hospital care for five common conditions — heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and peripheral vascular disease — that together contribute to about 90% of all acute hospitalisations for cardiovascular disease. The project falls under the D2D CRC’s Innovation Exchange program, which has expanded under the name of Fieldscope — a consultancy arm that helps organisations unlock the value of their data.

“The dataset that has been used is extremely powerful,” said D2D CRC Innovation Exchange Lead Dennis Horton. “By applying big data analytic techniques to this data, we have uncovered some very interesting facts, such as how variable patient outcomes are among hospitals. This suggests variation in care quality and processes at individual hospitals.”

Several early findings have already been presented at national meetings, with Dr Ranasinghe set to reveal the current data at the inaugural Heart Foundation/SAHMRI 2017 South Australian Cardiovascular Research Showcase on 27 October. The team is also working on developing a method for hospitals to use the data in their systems.

“The results of this project will have an immense impact on improving cardiac hospitalisation and procedures in Australia, and do so in a way that is highly secure and protects patients’ privacy,” said Horton.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Maksim Kabakou