Prevalence and outcomes of atrial fibrillation in a European healthcare area gained through the processing of a health information technology system.

Today's healthcare policies rely heavily on data that has been gathered from multiple small studies in intrinsically varied populations. We sought to describe the prevalence, comorbidities and outcomes of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the population of a specific region where all healthcare centers have implemented a common information technology (IT) structure. The total number of inhabitants was obtained from the healthcare area's IT system. Information pertaining to AF was derived from various datasets in the data warehouse of the Galician regional health service. In the healthcare area of Santiago de Compostela (n=383000), the diagnosis of AF was coded in 7990 (2.08%) individuals in 2013. Mean age was 76.83±10.5 years, mean CHA In this study, we report for the first time the true prevalence of diagnosed AF and its clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis in a Spanish healthcare area, based on the systematic integration of data available from a universally adopted health IT system within the region.

Copyright © 2019 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.