About ISD
Scotland has some of the best health service data in the world. Few other countries have information which combines high quality data, consistency, national coverage and the ability to link data to allow patient based analysis and follow up. The Information Services Division (ISD) is a division of National Services Scotland, part of NHS Scotland. ISD provides health information, health intelligence, statistical services and advice that support the NHS in progressing quality improvement in health and care and facilitates robust planning and decision making.
More about ISD
What's New in ISD?
Substance Misuse
The Substance Misuse team within ISD has published findings from their consultation on stakeholder information needs. The Substance Misuse Strategic Framework and Action Plan 
outlines the work ISD plans to undertake to meet the information needs identified through this consultation.
[Added 9 May 2012]
ISD on Twitter
ISD is part of NHS National Services Scotland Twitter stream. Follow @NHSNSS for the latest news and publication releases.
[Updated 9 May 2012]
Stay ahead of the headlines
If you're keen to get updates on our site, sign up for our new RSS feed to be alerted every time we publish something new. Visit www.isdscotland.org/RSS.asp and select your topics of choice.
[Updated 9 May 2012]
myISD
Welcome to myISD. This is a feature that allows you to personalise your homepage and keep all the parts of the website you use regularly in one easy to find place. You can sign up for the newsletters you like to see and set any preferences. You will need to fill in a simple form to register for myISD. That lets us see the features you use regularly so we can make the site better for you.
Latest Statistics
- Across Scotland, an estimated 65% of patients having an initiating event of either myocardial infarction (MI), coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were referred for cardiac rehabilitation. This includes 75% of heart attack patients, 68% of patients undergoing CABG, and 22% of patients undergoing PCI procedures.
- Patients have been allocated to a single initiating event within a hierarchical order: MI, CABG, PCI, valve surgery, heart failure, unstable angina then other events. This may contribute to the apparent low percentage of patients undergoing PCI reported to have been referred for cardiac rehabilitation. Audit data shows that at least 39% of patients with a non-ST elevated MI (NSTEMI) initiating event also had a linked PCI intervention.
- Referral to cardiac rehabilitation after any MI/CABG/PCI initiating event reached just under 100% in NHS Dumfries & Galloway health board area, but just over 40% in NHS Grampian (40%) and NHS Highland (42%).
- Previously reported figures for Scotland from the 2008 National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation showed percentage uptake for Scotland in 2006/07 were MI 52%, CABG 74%, PCI 11% and combined MI/CABG/PCI 45%. Although not directly comparable, the latest figures suggest an increase in referral in 2010/11 compared to 2006/07.
- Out of all the patients who were referred for cardiac rehabilitation in Scotland, 87% underwent assessment. This ranged from 76% in NHS Highland to 97% in NHS Shetland.
- Across Scotland, 85% of all patients assessed for cardiac rehabilitation received heart disease education.
- 67% of patients in Scotland who were referred and assessed for cardiac rehabilitation after MI or revascularisation (CABG or PCI) completed the audited phase(s) of the programme. This was highest in Orkney (85%) and lowest in Western Isles (38%).
- The DQA team have been assessing the quality of SMR01 data for over 20 years now and throughout this time the accuracy rate of Main Condition and Main Operation/Procedure has remained relatively stable at around 88% and 94% respectively and this has remained unchanged for this assessment.
- Of the 16 assessed data items held in the SMR01 record, nine (56%) were between 90% and 100% accurate.
- Thirteen of the 24 hospitals assessed did not achieve the recommended minimum 90% standard for accuracy rate of Main Condition.
- Since the last assessment in 2004-06, the accuracy rate of Other Conditions has increased by 10% points to 82% across Scotland. However, it was found that there are many codes omitted which ultimately affects the completeness of this data item.
- 27% of final discharge letters were not available in the case notes (or electronically) at the time of assessment. As a consequence they were not available for the assessment process or, presumably, the clinical coding process if required.
- Waiting List Date improved from 76% in 2004-06 to 84% in 2010-11 possibly showing that New Ways of Defining and Measuring Waiting Lists has had a positive effect on the recording accuracy.
- Admission/Transfer From and Discharge/Transfer To are both poorly recorded at 61% and 67% respectively.
- Ready for Discharge Date is an optional data item and it was found that this is rarely recorded in the casenotes or on the SMR01 by the hospitals assessed.
- Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
- All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.
- In 2010-11, all NHS Breast Screening Programme Minimum Performance Standards and all but 2 of the targets were met.
- In recent years, the overall age-standardised incidence rates have fallen for males and increased for females.
- Incidence rates show considerable variation between cancers, with, for example, substantial increases in melanoma of the skin and kidney cancers (both sexes), and decreases in ovarian (females) and lung cancers (males only).
- Actual numbers of cases of cancer have risen over the last decade, largely due to an ageing population.
- In 2010/11 a total of 41,019 valid height and weight measurements were recorded for children in Primary 1 in Scotland. This is approximately 74% of children in Primary 1.
- Based on centile cut-offs on the 1990 UK growth reference charts used for population monitoring purposes, in 2010/11, 21.4% of Primary 1 children were classified as overweight, including 9.6% obese and 5.5% severely obese. These are very similar to the levels of high BMI in 2009/10 (21.5% overweight, including 9.5% obese and 5.4% severely obese). Over the last decade, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has remained at a similar level of around one in five children in Primary 1.
- The percentage of Primary 1 school children classified as underweight (<=5th centile) was 3.7% in 2010/11, including 1.8% very underweight (<=2nd centile). These are similar to levels of low BMI in 2009/10 (3.4% underweight, including 1.6% very underweight). Levels of underweight have remained relatively stable over the period 2000/01 to 20010/11 at around 3% to 4%.
[284kb]
The Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) is a major web resource that has been developed by ISD Scotland in collaboration with NHS Health Scotland and other key national organisations. 
