These researchers sought to determine whether racial/ethnic differences in evidencebased care for myocardial infarction (MI) existed among 443 hospitals participating in the national Get With the Guidelines–Coronary Artery Disease (GWTW-CAD) campaign between 2002 and 2007 and to assess whether such programmes are associated with decreasing health disparities over time. Data were analysed from 142,593 acute MI patients (121,528 whites, 10,882 African Americans, and 10,183 Hispanics). Over the 5 years of study, use of each performance measure for MI care improved significantly, regardless of race/ethnic groups. At the start of the study, there was a gap in care quality by race/ethnicity, with 70% of whites and Hispanics receiving defect-free care (defined as patients receiving all eligible performance measures), versus 60% of African Americans. Notably, by the end of the study, while small gaps remained in the care received by African Americans, which included less use of aspirin at discharge and smoking-cessation advice, the care received by Hispanic patients was almost identical to that of white patients in terms of adherence to core performance measures. Overall, progressive improvements in defect-free care were observed regardless of race/ethnic groups.
