Secondary Software

How to submit data

There are two ways in which you can submit patient data to the NACR:

(a) By entering data directly into the national database, thus using this as your clinical management system

(b) By entering data directly into a local database (clinical management system) and submit data to the NACR via an export / import routine.

A local database can be defined as a database designed in-house (i.e. in Microsoft Access or Excel format), a hospital system (i.e. PAS) or a commercial system that has been developed by a third party and purchased by your organisation (i.e. TOMCAT, DATACAM, PATS, SystmOne).

Writing an export routing (‘patch’)

I would like to continue using our local database, how can I submit the NACR data to CCAD?

If you are using a database that has been designed in-house (i.e. Microsoft Access or Excel) you will have to;

(a) ensure that all of the minimum dataset fields are contained in the local database

(b) contact your IM&T department and ask them to write an export routine (or ‘patch’) so that the patient data can be exported from the local database

Who is responsible for writing a ‘patch’?

If the local database is an in-house database then the patch should be written by your IM&T department or those responsible for developing the database.

If the local database is one that has been purchased from a third party then you should enquire to whether the patch has already been written. Enquiries should be made directly with the third party responsible for developing the database. The NACR project team have a list of the third party software developers that have integrated the minimum dataset into their database and have written a patch.

How is a ‘patch’ written?

Either the IM&T department or third party suppliers who design files to be submitted to CCAD must construct the data as a quote delimited comma separated value (CSV) file where each line (tuple) represents a single patient procedure or event and the data items are all present in the correct sequence.

CCAD import scripts will detect whether 'additional' items are supplied and import these also. CCAD will accept either the 'short code' or the 'long code' listed in the datasets for import, and local IM&T departments and third party suppliers should note the exact form of the 'long code' which is a rubric prepended by the short code, a period and space.

The sequence for the NACR ‘patch’ can be viewed in the Download section of the website.

If you do have any problems with the firewall configuration please contact the CCAD Help desk on 0845 300 6016 (option 2) or helpdesk@ccad.org.uk

Once the ‘patch’ has been written, how do I send the data to CCAD?

Once the patch has been written the patient data should be imported into the national database which will enable it to be sent to CCAD. Instructions on how to achieve this can be found in the relevant section of Volume 4: REHAB (Cardiac Rehabilitation Application) Guide.

How often to upload data

The submission of patient data can be done daily, weekly or monthly. This should be agreed with whoever is responsible for exporting and importing the data within your organisation. Ideally, we would recommend at least monthly.