The CHD severity classification system: development of a tool to assist with disease stratification for CHD research.

Background: Complexity stratification for CHD is an integral part of clinical research due to its heterogenous clinical presentation and outcomes. To support our ongoing research efforts into CHD requiring disease severity stratifications, a simplified CHD severity classification system was developed and verified, with potential utility for clinical researchers without specialist CHD knowledge or access to clinical/medical records.

Method: A two-tiered analysis approach was undertaken.

The Kids Heart BioBank: supporting 20 years of patient care and research into CHD.

Introduction: The cause of most CHD is unknown and considered complex, implicating genetic and environmental factors in disease causation. The Kids Heart BioBank was established in 2003 to accelerate genetic investigations into CHD.

Methods: Recruitment includes patients undergoing interventions for CHD at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Using novel data linkage of congenital heart disease biobank data with administrative health data to identify cardiovascular outcomes to inform genomic analysis.

Introduction: Contemporary care of congenital heart disease (CHD) is largely standardised, however there is heterogeneity in post-surgical outcomes that may be explained by genetic variation. Data linkage between a CHD biobank and routinely collected administrative datasets is a novel method to identify outcomes to explore the impact of genetic variation.

Objective: Use data linkage to identify and validate patient outcomes following surgical treatment for CHD.