Similar to other multinational initiatives for economics and disease monitoring pre-analyzed and validated data are used that help to compare and benchmark international basic epidemiologic information and outcome research. Actually QuaSi-Niere has cooperated on a voluntary basis for many years with more than 90% of all 1176 centres for RRT. German basic epidemiology data (annual report 2002/2003 available at www.quasi-niere.de) are: overall prevalence - 56,881 dialysis patients (pmp 689), 18,869 transplant follow up (pmp 229), –overall incidence 14,358 (pmp 174), deceased 10,067. - <18 years children/adolescents: prevalence - 806 (611 tx follow up, 195 dialysis), incidence - 99 (17 preemptive tx). More than 85,000 patients have been registered individually since 1996 giving basic medical information, diagnosis and outcome data. This national harmonised core data will allow detailed analysis.
Due to national laws registration of core medical data will most likely become mandatory from 2005 for quality assurance purposes. Benchmarks and detailed questions can finally be answered in adherance to rules for privacy from 75,777 (pmp 806) patients. Contribution to multinational investigation and international cooperation is welcome.