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| GHA PAGE |
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| Year : 2006 | Volume
: 7
| Issue : 1 | Page : 39-40 |
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Gulf RACE - 2006 : A new era in disease documentation in the Gulf and the Middle East
Mohammad Zubaid
MB, ChB, FRCPC, FACC, FGHA,
| Date of Web Publication | 17-Jun-2010 |
Correspondence Address:
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
How to cite this article:
Zubaid M. Gulf RACE - 2006 : A new era in disease documentation in the Gulf and the Middle East. Heart Views 2006;7:39-40 |
GULF RACE-2006 is the start of a long-awaited acute coronary syndromes registry across the Arabian Gulf states.
When the Gulf Heart Association (GHA) was established in January 2001, one of its aims was to be the source of reference for cardiac diseases (to the Ministries of Health) in the Arabian Gulf countries. The founding members realized that for the GHA to be the leading source of reference, they needed to have data about cardiac diseases in the Gulf. They also realized that their individual countries lacked crucial information about heart diseases. Therefore, the GHA embarked on establishing several programs to study the patterns of cardiac diseases and the treatment practices in the Gulf countries. It was felt that this would be best achieved through disease registries.
The GHA took into consideration several factors in order to decide which cardiac disease to study first. The first factor was the World Health Organizations's (WHO) predictions for cardiovascular diseases to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing countries by the year 2020 [1],[2],[3],[4] . The second factor was the high prevelance of certain risk factors in the Gulf countries. Studies have shown a high prevalence rate of type 2 diabetes the adult populations (15-18%), obesity, and smoking [5],[6],[7],[8],[9] . Therefore, based on WHO's predictions and the high prevelance of cardiac risk factors, the GHA chose acute coronary syndromes (ACS) to be the first cardiac disease to be formally studied.
Individual Gulf countries had their own established hospital or country registries of ACS. However, it was decided that ACS should be studied in a uniform Registry across the Gulf countries. It was also determined that the Registry should reflect the true practice across each country and should not only represent the practice in a handful of highly equipped tertiary care centres.
To that end, the GHA Governing Board formed an ACS Committee on September 22, 2005 while meeting in Dubai, UAE. The main task of the Committee was to establish an ACS Registry. The Committee members took that task seriously and developed a draft protocol which was later reviewed and modified several times. The GHA ACS Committee held it's first meeting in Doha, Qatar on December 29, 2005 to critically undertake a major review of the draft protocol. The protocol was later reviewed and ratified by the GHA Governing Board on April 8, 2006 in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain.
The GHA ACS Committee formed an administrative infrastructure to insure the proper implementation of this Registry. It was named Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events - 2006, under the acronym Gulf RACE - 2006. Two stand-alone investigators meetings were held in preparation for the implementation of the Registry. The first one was held in Dubai on April 13, 2006 for the Oman and UAE investigators. The second meeting was held in Kuwait on April 20 for the Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar investigators. The data collection forms and the protocol underwent final changes after both meetings and the date of May 8, 2006 was chosen to be the start date for the one-month pilot phase.
The aims of the Gulf RACE - 2006 are:
- Estimate the incidence of ACS in the Gulf.
- Analyze the practice patterns and treatments of ACS in the Gulf countries.
- Determine the adherence to published guidelines.
- Study all elements of this registry and compare them among the individual countries. Specific elements of the registry that will be analyzed, to mention some, include the distribution of the different risk factors, the types of myocardial infarctions, the incidence of unstable angina, the use of thrombolysis and other drugs in-hospital and at discharge, and morbidity/mortality rates.
- To carry out the same registry periodically every few years in order to find out changes in our practice and the influence of new therapy on our practice and results.
- Establish a collaborative network group among members of the registry. This collaboration will result in an infrastructure that will be used in the future for other types of registries or trials.
Enrollment in Gulf RACE - 2006 started on May 8, 2006 across 46 hospitals in the Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kingdom of Bahrain, and Kuwait. We have obtained ethics approval from representative bodies in the 5 countries. By enrolling 46 hospitals, the Registry will cover more than 95% of the population in these 5 countries.
 Acknowledgements | |  |
The GHA would like to thank Sanofi Aventis for their support of Gulf RACE - 2006. Sanofi aventis has provided unconditional and unrestricted grant for the undertaking of Gulf RACE - 2006.
| References | | |
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