Development of Korean Standardized Heart Failure Registry: Experience From Integration of KorAHF and KorHF III
- Author:
Eui-Soon KIM
1
;
Huijin LEE
;
Jong-Chan YOUN
;
Byung-Su YOO
;
Hae-Young LEE
;
Ju-Hee LEE
;
Dong-Hyuk CHO
;
Mi-Hyang JUNG
;
Hye Sun LEE
;
Hyun-Jai CHO
Author Information
- Publication Type:Review Article
- From: International Journal of Heart Failure 2026;8(1):1-11
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Heart failure (HF) prevalence and associated socio-economic costs have risen rapidly in Korea, creating urgent demand for a national, standardized prospective registry to support quality monitoring, outcome comparison, and real-world evidence. Standardized data definitions are essential for valid comparisons across studies and healthcare settings. We created a unified national HF cohort by integrating the two largest Korean registries, KorAHF (2011–2014;n=5,625) and KorHF III (2018–2023; n=7,351), yielding 12,976 hospitalized HF patients. Because heterogeneous variable definitions impeded direct comparisons, we implemented a harmonization pipeline across demographic, clinical, imaging, biomarker, therapeutic, and outcome domains, aligned with international standards and reinforced by systematic data quality checks.A multidisciplinary panel then conducted a structured decision process to produce the Korean HF Standard Dataset, a tiered and interoperable variable set spanning six domains: demographics, presentation at admission, in-hospital events and comorbidities, discharge status, outpatient follow-up, and readmission events. This integrated platform and standardized variables enable precise identification of HF patient phenotypes and prognostic factors, establishing an evidence-based foundation for disease management. This supports an analysis of temporal changes in treatment patterns and outcomes, generates data to inform future clinical practice guidelines, and provides a practical basis for planning large, continuous, prospective HF registries. Furthermore, it also facilitates pragmatic, registry-based randomized clinical trials and unmet-needs assessments that can guide national health policy. Establishing a foundation for future linkage with national health databases, this platform will allow for enhanced accuracy, comparability, and representativeness, powering quality improvement initiatives and population-level monitoring of Korea’s growing HF burden.
