Health indicators 2009: a focus on cardiac care in Canada.

Close to 18,000 Canadians die each year after having had a heart attack. Heart attacks are costly to the system: ischemic heart disease (including heart attacks) cost the Canadian healthcare system $8.1 billion in 2000. The Canadian Institute for Health Information's recently released Health Indicators 2009 includes new information relating to heart attacks. This article highlights some of the key findings from the report related to cardiac care. It examines the declining rates of for heart attacks, socio-economic factors relating to heart attacks, falling 30-day in-hospital mortality rates and trends and provincial differences in cardiac procedures.