Cohort profile: the Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP)

AIMS: The Myocardial Ischaemia National Audit Project (MINAP) collects data from admissions in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland with Type 1 myocardial infarction (T1 MI). The project aims to improve clinical care through the audit process and to provide powerful high-resolution data for research. METHODS AND RESULTS: MINAP collects data spanning 130 data fields covering the course of patient care, from the moment the patient calls for professional help through to hospital discharge and rehabilitation. Data are entered by clinicians and clerical staff within hospitals, and pseudonymized records are uploaded centrally to the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR), hosted by Barts Health NHS Trust, London, UK. Two hundred and six hospitals submit over 92 000 new cases to MINAP annually. Approximately 1.5 million patient records are currently held in the database. Patient demographics, medical history, clinical assessment, investigations, treatments, drug therapy prior to admission, during hospital stay, and at discharge are collected. Data completeness of three key data fields (age, admission blood pressure, and heart rate) is over 91%. Vital status following hospital discharge is obtained via linkage to data from the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics. An annual report is compiled using these data, with individual hospital summary data included. Datasets are available to researchers by application to NICOR. CONCLUSION: MINAP is the largest single healthcare system heart attack registry, and includes data from hospitalizations with T1 MI in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It includes high-resolution data across the patient pathway and is a powerful tool for quality improvement and research.