The Society of German Cardiologists in private practice (BNK) reports about its project on quality assurance in invasive cardiology (QuIK). Results of a computerized data collection and analysis of cardiac catheterizations and interventions in the years 1999-2002 are presented. These results are compared with other registries. The QuIK-project is done voluntarily by 70% of the society's cardiologists who perform invasive methods. A total of 225,562 diagnostic and 64,895 interventional procedures are documented over the 4 years. Patient characteristics and procedural data kept unchanged. Complication rates were low (< 2%), MACE < 0.5%. There was a rising number of patients referred with acute myocardial infarction. Less time was used to complete procedures from 1 year to another. Two out of three of the centers underwent a monitoring/auditing process in 2002. The desirable post-interventional follow-up after discharge in all cases appears to be impossible to fulfill under the given economical circumstances.

QuIK is the German acronym for QUality Assurance in Invasive Cardiology. It describes the continuous project of an electronic data collection in Cardiac catheterization laboratories all over Germany. Mainly members of the German Society of Cardiologists in Private Practice (BNK) participate in this computer based project. Since 1996 data of diagnostic and interventional procedures are collected and send to a registry-center where a regular benchmarking analysis of the results is performed. Part of the project is a yearly auditing process including an on-site visit to the cath lab to guarantee for the reliability of information collected. Since 1996 about one million procedures have been documented.

On behalf of the German Association of Cardiologists in Private Practice (BNK) the Steering Committee of the QuIK Registry reports the results 2010 to 2012 of the voluntary Quality Assurance in Invasive Cardiology (QuIK) and compares them to other data collections. More than 70 % of diagnostic (LHC) and therapeutic (PCI) cardiac catheterization procedures in private practice were entered into the registry. Altogether 225,756 LHC and 63,951 PCI were documented over the three years period. In these years age of patients and percentage of acute coronary syndromes increased as well in LHC as in PCI while consumption of dye solution and application of radiation dose decreased. In PCI the rate of 3-vessel coronary artery disease is still continuously rising. These parameters prove the increasing complexity of the cases. By implemented standardized external auditing (monitoring) to guarantee validity of the data QuIK remains a worldwide unique quality assurance project in cardiology. On a stable data base over all together 17 years the QuIK Registry shows the reality of every day cardiologic care in catheterization laboratories beyond selected study populations as well as a reliable feasibility of internal and external quality assurance.