Impact of national cardiac, cardiac surgery, and intensive care conferences on cardiovascular mortality in Germany

BackgroundThousands of physicians and other employees of the health system participate in major national congresses of German cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, and intensive care physicians and are, thus, key players in the treatment of acute cardiovascular events. While differences in mortality during such congress days were described in the USA, Germany-wide data are missing.MethodsIn order to study the effect of congresses on cardiovascular mortality, the numbers of daily cardiovascular deaths (ICD-10 codes: I01-I15, I20-I25, I30-I52) in Germany from 1997-2011 from the data of the Federal Statistical Office were used for the most important cardiac, intensive medical, and cardiac surgery congresses (DGAI, DGIIN, DGK, DGTHG, DIVI). For comparison, numbers of cardiovascular deaths at adefined time interval before and after the respective Congress were defined.ResultsOver the 15-year study period, atotal of 701,272 cardiovascular deaths (conference days: 233,456, nonconference days: 467,816) were observed during 89conferences with 318congress days and 638control days. The relative risks of increased mortality on congresses were inconspicuous for the entire population (relative risk [RR] 0.998, confidence interval [CI] 0.994; 1.004), even after adjustment for gender, age group, professional, and ICD codes (RR 1.005, CI 0.951; 1.063).ConclusionNational congresses of cardiologists, intensive care physicians and cardiac surgeons have no influence on the cardiovascular mortality in Germany.