Background: The target-oriented distribution of increasingly limited health care resources requires knowledge about the benefit of established measures and the health care situation. This is the purpose of health care research. In this overview, the role of registries in regard to health care research is described.
Medical registries: Registries, a collection of standardized medical and socioeconomic data, investigate systematically and comprehensively for a certain purpose and are therefore appropriate to describe the actual treatment in regard to undersupply, excess supply, and missupply. One example would Allbe the use of statins in risk profile-oriented primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. Furthermore, positive experience from registries is available, as in the case of quality assurance management. In registries for myocardial infarction like MIR, MITRA and ACOS, feedback about therapy compared with guidelines along with the request to explain deviation from guidelines resulted in a significant reduction of hospital mortality. The methodological necessities and limitations of the informational value are pointed out.
Conclusion: Registries are able to contribute substantially to health care research.