Toronto, March 25 (IANS) Involving hospitals in clinical trials seem to improve patient-care, as borne out by the lower incidence of heart attacks and death rates, according to a study. Quality of care for conditions like acute coronary syndromes has gradually improved after the implementation of clinical guidelines, performance measurement and quality improvement efforts, said Sumit R. Majumdar of University of Alberta in Canada.

The study is based on a survey of 174,000 patients admitted to 494 hospitals with two specific types of heart conditions, high risk non ST-segment and non ST-segment myocardial infarction, which Majumdar and his colleagues analysed.

These patients participated in Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes or CRUSADE, an ongoing, voluntary, observational data collection and quality improvement initiative, from Jan 1, 2001 to June 30, 2006.

Patients were split into three groups: those treated at hospitals with no trial participation (29,984), low trial participation (93,705) and high trial participation (50,373).

In all, 4,590 patients (2.6 percent) were enrolled in clinical trials, with 145 hospitals having no enrolment, 226 hospitals having a midpoint of one percent enrolment and 123 hospitals having a midpoint of 4.9 percent enrolment.

“Patients treated at hospitals participating in clinical trials seem to receive better quality of care and seem to have significantly better outcomes than patients treated at hospitals that do not participate in trials - at least in the setting of acute coronary syndrome,” the authors concluded.

The findings have been published in the March 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.