Lay summary
Our proposal - Myocardial Marker Enhanced Data to Improve Cardiovascular Care in New Zealand (MEDICi-NZ) aims to make widely collected cardiac blood tests fully useful in improving care for New Zealanders at risk of adverse heart events. Every year 100,000 Kiwis have heart blood tests (troponin and/or BNP) done when they are seen in emergency departments (ED) to undergo assessment for possible heart emergencies. Less than 10% of those tested have an urgent cardiac problem proven on the day. However, evidence suggests test results are powerful predictors of later (in the following year) adverse heart events, even when a problem cannot be confirmed at the initial ED visit. We propose to prove and apply this predictive aspect of these frequently conducted tests, combining blood test data with other routine clinical documentation to develop the best ways of converting this information into practical clinical guidelines to improve New Zealanders' heart care.