Population Based Approach

The selection of hospitals and cases reflect the population-based perspective of ACS. Thoughtful site selection can be a powerful means to increase the value of the data collected from each region and enhance the generalizability of study results. Clusters of four to six hospitals in each region/country have been selected to represent the proportion of hospitals in their region that have a cardiac catheterization laboratory.

Where feasible, hospitals have been selected to capture patients who are representative of a defined geographic area (i.e. a 'population-based' sample). Ideally, the hospitals that provide care for residents from the defined geographic catchment area will be diverse and will represent varying degrees of specialization of care.