The Italian Heart Valves Registry was included in RIPI as a new line of research considering that these devices fall into the categories with the highest impact on patients’ health. Furthermore, currently there is no system at a national level that allows to monitor the outcome of this type of intervention. Besides, these devices have an high impact also on public health expenditure: according to the National expenditure report in the public health service for purchasing medical devices (published by the Ministry of Health in 2017), heart valve prostheses (category P07) turned out to be the third category among those with the highest expenditure, with an amount of approximately 325 million euros.
To correctly design the Registry, it is essential, firstly, to know the extent of the phenomenon. The first step will be to comprehensively examine the scientific literature through different databases, with the aim of highlighting whether there are registries of these devices at national or international level, what information they are collecting and how they are organized.
Artificial heart valve interventions will also be mapped at a national level. All these activities will be essential to structure the RIVAC data collection.