Setting Data Standards
We set data standards to create consistent, interoperable and high-quality cardiovascular information that speaks uniformly across studies, registries, electronic health records and clinical trials.
Unlocking the power of heart data
Creating consistent, high-quality information to drive research and care
High-quality, harmonised data is at the heart of improving cardiovascular care. Historically, hospitals, clinics, registries and countries have collected cardiovascular data in different ways, with varied definitions, coding systems and formats. This makes it difficult to compare results, combine datasets or fully harness new technologies.
At the European Society of Cardiology, we set data standards to create consistent, interoperable and high-quality cardiovascular information that speaks uniformly across studies, registries, electronic health records and clinical trials. This harmonised data not only improves research accuracy and supports policy decisions but also enables innovative methods, facilitates AI and predictive modelling and ultimately speeds up progress in preventing and treating cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Setting these standards is integral to our data science strategy and our long-term vision to help the cardiology community build the right datasets to make data collection easier, enabling enhanced collective insights and more effective interventions for patients everywhere.
EuroHeart – the data standard for harmonised care
The European Unified Registries for Heart Care Evaluation and Randomised Trials (EuroHeart) is our flagship initiative that lays the foundation for harmonising cardiovascular data across Europe.
By defining consistent datasets and indicators, we enable health systems to compare performance metrics such as mortality, treatment adherence and outcomes. This is done in close collaboration with leading clinicians, researchers and data scientists, following a structured approach to ensure usability and accuracy.
EuroHeart standards are already applied in registries including percutaneous coronary intervention, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and transcatheter aortic valve implantation, supporting observational studies and ESC patient registries. These standards allow complementary data collection across disease areas, even in different countries, while maintaining consistency and interoperability.
Collaborating with leading experts in a data standard ecosystem
We are consortium partners in major European Union (EU)-funded projects. These initiatives complement EuroHeart by providing tools, methods and infrastructure that make cardiovascular data more interoperable and safer to share. Together, these efforts support harmonised registries, enable federated analytics and strengthen the European real-world data ecosystem.
We also contribute to other projects, including Joint Action Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes (JACARDI), and consult with the European Commission on large-scale initiatives such as the European Health Data Space.
How we use EuroHeart data standards
EuroHeart standards have been successfully applied across our registries and observational studies, ensuring consistent, high-quality data collection in areas including percutaneous coronary intervention, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and transcatheter aortic valve implantation.
By standardising this data, we enable comparable insights and support complementary disease-specific registries, including the ESC Global Registries And Surveys Programme (GRASP). This approach ensures that data collected across different countries and studies can be integrated effectively, driving more accurate research, better-informed policy and improved patient outcomes.
