Patients are being denied the information they need to make an informed choice about heart surgery, a Guardian investigation has discovered
DataHeart surgery data: non risk adjusted
This data is presented without being run through risk adjustment systems
Heart surgery data: non risk adjusted (adjusted data on website)
This data is presented without being run through risk adjustment systems, although risk adjusted data is available on the hospitals' websites
Heart surgery data: risk adjusted (EuroSCORE and Parsonnet)
This data has been analysed under the EuroSCORE system, a checklist of patients' risk factors for surgery, and a second data set uses an older risk adjustment system, Parsonnet
Heart surgery data: risk adjusted (Mean EuroSCORE)
This data has been analysed under the logistic EuroSCORE system, a checklist of patients' risk factors for surgery
The data explained
244 doctors and the problem of comparing mortality rates.
Heart tsar's advice - how to interpret the figures
Hospital's heart death figures face scrutiny
Mar 17: Watchdog presented with dossier of evidence accumulated during Guardian inquiry into cardiac mortality rates.
Hospitals deny patients facts on death rates
Mar 16: Guardian investigation extracts first data on heart surgeons and reveals successes and failures of system.
16.03.05: Landmark step on the road to more openness
16.03.05: The surgeon's view
17.03.05: Letters - website for heart data
'Money should have been spent on data collection'
Mar 18: Adrian Marchbank, a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Derriford hospital in Plymouth, explains how the Guardian's application under the Freedom of Information Act has 'stirred up a hornet's nest' at his NHS trust. And the trust responds to his claims.
The heart of the matter
Mar 16, Leader: For the first time in the history of British medicine, the mortality rates of individual doctors in one medical speciality are published.
Top tips for a healthy heart
Mar 17: Ten ways you can reduce the risk of a heart attack.
