Acute Stroke Registry Planning Experiences

Background Stroke is a serious health threat around the world, particularly in developing countries. As a preventive action, disease registries have long been used in developed countries. Based on the globally accepted evidence, disease registries have an impressive positive impact on different dimensions of health care systems. In order to develop an acute stroke registry, acute stroke registry planning experiences in the world are assessed in this paper. Methods There were 4 main factors in the planning phase to be assessed: determination of goal, scope, registration type, and consideration of technical aspects. Electronic databases were examined to find 27 relevant English-language articles focusing on acute stroke registry development. Based on the literature review, the main data sets and care quality measures of acute stroke registries were identified. Results The main purposes of developing an acute stroke registry are improvement of care quality, epidemiology assessment, and evaluation of health care system outcomes. Most of the registries focus on improving care quality. The number of multicenter, Web-based, and prospective registries were significantly higher than other types of registries. Only 1 of the registry systems implemented clinical support tools. Among 12 data sets identified to be considered as registry, 7 were highly used. Among the 14 care quality measures in acute ischemic stroke, the mostly used measure was the rate of early thrombolytic therapy. Conclusion Establishment of a Web-based, prospective registry system for the acute phase of stroke seems useful for monitoring the rate of early thrombolytic therapy. The establishment of a clinical guideline-based support tool for diagnosis of patients' eligibility for thrombolytic treatment is suggested. As observed in this research, time is a very important factor in care quality improvement, particularly in the acute phase of stroke, for achievement of a more qualified care and a more serious surveillance on prehospital and hospital emergency systems.