Evolving methodologies in computerized European Registries

This paper is written by four authors from four European Registries that serve the treatment of endstage renal failure (ESRF). Each of these Registries is introduced by a short historical note. We enjoy informal professional links and are developing patient linkage to facilitate checking and interchange of data.The purpose of this paper is to give a “glimpse behind the scenes” into the methodologies evolving within and between the Registries. Some developments have been necessitated by the particular problems of maintaining patient files which are as accurate and comprehensive as possible; others are required to optimize research into the large data bases which have now been accumulated. We report methods under development by our four Registries for assessing the accuracy of the large patient files and using these data bases for effective research and to improve our service to the contributing centers