Automated data capture from echocardiography reports to enhance heart failure population research

As IT dominates cardiology, the ability of centres to link clinical databases to perform outcome based research has increased significantly. Good quality research relies on the ability to accurately identify and characterise the disease of interest in the population. Heart Failure is one such disease that is often challenging to define from datasets. Uniquely we have the ability to link the Tayside echocardiography dataset to other regional datasets including dispensed prescription and hospitalisation data. Echocardiography reports are commonly comprised of structured, usually numerical values, and a free text component to store overall conclusions or impressions. We therefore sought to develop a computer algorithm to determine LV function from the free text and subsequently to validate the ability to define systolic HF based upon LVSD and loop diuretic therapy