Media Release
Date: 8 September 2009
AN AUSTRALIAN FIRST
Australian stroke experts join forces to build a National Stroke Registry
The Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR) is a new initiative that will collate key data to
significantly improve the quality of hospital care for all patients admitted with stroke or transient
ischaemic attacks (TIAs).
Approximately 60,000 strokes occur in Australia every year, and two thirds of these are first-ever
strokes. While approximately one third of strokes result in death, many of those who survive will live
with permanent and significant disability. The lifetime costs associated with stroke and related
disability is estimated to be over $2 billion per year.
The AuSCR database will gather information about patients with stroke to determine the patterns of
treatment, rehabilitation and recovery of patients. The data collected provides information about the
severity of stroke at three months after stroke, as well as the quality of stroke treatment in hospitals,
and includes questions such as:
Whether the patient was treated in a Stroke Care Unit?
Whether the patient and family received a care plan on discharge?
Whether the patient received blood pressure medication on discharge?
Whether the patient has had another stroke since discharge from hospital?
The information recorded in the AuSCR database will allow individual hospitals to monitor the quality
of stroke treatment and the care they provide to patients. National and state-based comparisons of
the quality and outcomes of care are also possible.. “The Australian Stroke Registry allows us to
better understand the effects of stroke and the influence of the care they receive when they visit
hospital, and therefore can be used to provide feedback to improve the quality of hospital care,” said
RPA Hospital Neurologist Professor Craig Anderson, who is also the Director of the Neurological and
Mental Health Division at The George Institute for International Health and Chair of the AuSCR
Management Committee. “In most cases, when best practice stroke medicine is provided, lives are
saved and long-term disability is prevented.”
AuSCR is a collaboration between the following partners; The George Institute for International
Health, the National Stroke Research Institute, the National Stroke Foundation, and the Stroke
Society of Australasia. Professor Anderson and colleagues want to obtain the most accurate picture
about stroke, the care received everyday by patients who have had a stroke, and whether or not the
best-quality interventions are being provided to all stroke patients. By working together with clinicians,
the return on investment in AuSCR will be substantial in terms of better population health and fewer
acute episodes of stroke.
The AuSCR initiative has commenced its first year, with an Official Launch at the combined meeting
of the 20th Stroke Society of Australasia and the 6th
Asia Pacific Conference Against Stroke 2009
Annual Scientific Meeting in Cairns on 8th September 2009. For more information about the AuSCR
project, please see our website or contact the Project Coordinator.
Mrs. Joyce Lim
Project Coordinator
The Australian Stroke Clinical Registry
C/- The George Institute
PO Box M201
Missenden Rd
SYDNEY NSW 2050
Email: admin@auscr.com.au
Telephone: 02 9993 4592
Freecall: 1800 673 053
Media Contacts
The George Institute
Emma Orpilla
(02) 8238 2424
eorpilla@george.org.au
The National Stroke
Research Institute/ Florey
Neurosciences Institute
Robert Hilkes
(03) 8344 1658
Robert.hilkes@florey.edu.au
The National Stroke
Foundation
Kellie Furey
(03) 9690 1000
kfurey@strokefoundation.com.au
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