Download PDF
Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2015; 63(02): 83
DOI: 10.1055/s-0035-1547211
Editorial
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York

Reporting on the Heart

Markus K. Heinemann
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
12 March 2015 (online)

    Permissions and Reprints All articles of this category

In this print issue of the ThCVS, there is another first—or is it? The article by Meinertz et al titled German Heart Report 2013[1] summarizes the substantial publication of the same name edited by the Deutsche Herzstiftung (German Heart Foundation).[2] This summary was published eFirst on January 8, 2015, simultaneously in ThCVS, and in Clinical Research in Cardiology,[3] emphasizing the enormous efforts the three involved scientific societies German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG), German Cardiac Society (DGK), and German Society for Pediatric Cardiology (DGPK) had put into its development.

In 2012 the German Heart Foundation took over the responsibility for the compilation of this comprehensive data collection. These three scientific societies as well as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) and various other sources contribute the data available to them on a yearly basis. They are compiled and evaluated centrally and processed by an editorial team. The report finally gives an overview over the incidence of cardiac diseases, their treatment, as well as their outcome in Germany. Because of the diversity of the data sources, there is a time delay, meaning that the report published in January 2013 was generated during 2012 and contains the data from 2011.

The history of this report goes back to 1989. At that time, it only analyzed the situation of cardiac surgery and its service to the (West) German population in 1988.[4] Interestingly enough it was initiated and compiled not by the medical community but by a leading political health official in the state of Lower Saxony, Dr. Ernst Bruckenberger. Cardiology data found their way into the yearly report only in 2000.

For more than two decades, the data collection has borne the colloquial name of “Bruckenberger Report” after its founder and principal author. It was eagerly awaited each year, not only by the politicians but also by the medical key players. Its influence on shaping the landscape of cardiac medicine, especially surgery, in Germany cannot be regarded highly enough. It must be doubted whether our country would have the high standard of cardiac surgical care taken for granted today without this repetitive systematic analysis.

It looks easy and effortless when a skilled performer dances a waltz, but as everybody who has ever tried it can confirm, it takes a lot of practice and some amount of inborn elegance that cannot be learned. Dr. Bruckenberger was born in Austria and is known to be an avid classical dancer. With the same ease of movement he tied an ever-growing bouquet of data sources and information, and established a benchmark level of reporting. He repeatedly demonstrated this in this very journal.[5] [6] The issue of quality assurance, still a matter of highest priority for the DGTHG, also goes back to these founding years of the heart report.[7]

It seemed only befitting that Prof. Meinertz of the German Heart Foundation decided to once again publish a summary of this annual report. It has changed considerably in structure, design, and content over the past 3 years since the Bruckenberger days. The authors believe, however, that it has retained its original superordinate elegance.