Understanding national variation and effects of interventions at different levels of care for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (UNVEIL-PCI)

Coronary artery disease - both heart attacks (myocardial infarction) and stable coronary artery disease - is an important source of ill-health and mortality in the UK. Both conditions can be treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), whose use has grown over the last 20 years in the UK from approximately 10,000 in 1991 to over 92,000 in 2013. 

In the UK, the NICOR national audit provides a rich dataset documenting a large majority of PCI procedures in the country. This gives us the opportunity to explore the so-far unanswered questions of whether there is any variation in provision between similar patient populations across the country, and what might be underpinning such variation. In so doing, UNVEIL-PCI should have a direct impact on health services design and provision in the UK.