Research, quality, data: How to improve cardiovascular care at a systems level

Research should focus on unmet clinical needs and be driven by collaboration. Close cooperation between basic, translational and clinical researchers, together with patient involvement, can help ensure that limited research resources are used where they can have the greatest impact.

Patient involvement should begin early in the research process. Patient representatives can contribute not only to clinical trials but also to the development and prioritisation of basic and translational research projects.

Certification can support quality improvement when it goes beyond formal compliance. Certified centres provide structures and standards that can accelerate diagnosis and treatment, while continuous monitoring of processes and outcomes is essential to demonstrate their impact on patient care.

Quality standards need to evolve continuously. Feedback from certified centres, new evidence, guideline updates and advances in diagnostics and treatment should be incorporated into certification requirements and processes.

Routine clinical data can enable better quality control and more connected cardiovascular care. Comprehensive, structured data from inpatient and outpatient care can support benchmarking, outcome monitoring and the evaluation of healthcare interventions.

Data only improve care if they are reliable, comparable and usable. Automated data extraction, interoperable systems and common quality indicators are needed to reduce the burden on clinicians and enable meaningful comparisons across hospitals and countries.

Patient-reported outcomes and patient access to data should be integral to data-driven care. Digital tools could give patients greater access to their health information and enable more active participation, while ensuring that digital innovation does not widen existing inequalities.