ACD Terms & Conditions

Terms and Conditions

Who we are and how to contact us

The Adult Cardiac Database (“the Database”), part of the Quality Improvement Programme (“QUIP”) is operated by the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (“EACTS”). EACTS is a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 07401765 and a charity registered with the Charity Commission under charity number 1140274 with its registered office at Madeira Walk, Windsor, Berkshire England, SL4 1EU.

The Adult Cardiac Database has been established to collect and store cardiac surgical data. The data in the Database is aggregated and anonymised pre-/peri- and post-operative data of cardiac surgery procedures carried out in Europe by the participant surgery centres (“the Participants”).

To contact EACTS regarding the Database, please use the contact details on our Contact Us page.

Acceptance of Terms and Conditions

Access to and use of the Database is provided by EACTS subject to the following:

By using the Database, you confirm that you accept these Terms and Conditions, including any Other Terms and Conditions that may apply as below (together, the “Terms and Conditions“) and that you agree to comply with them. The Terms and Conditions take effect on the date of your first use of the site.
If you do not agree to the Terms and Conditions, you must not use the Database.

Other Terms and Conditions that apply to you

The following additional documents also apply to your use of the Database as an individual user:

Data Privacy and Cookies Policy, which sets out how we will use your personal data and cookies on our site.

Changes to Terms and Conditions

EACTS reserves the right to amend the Terms and Conditions from time to time. When you use the Database, please check the Terms and Conditions. These terms were most recently updated in July 2024.

By continuing to use the Database after amendments are made you confirm that you accept the amendments and that you agree to comply with them.

Your account and password

You will need to register an account to access the Database through the recommended registration processes* in order to access certain services available. These services include, but are not limited to, the ability to view data provided and examine the outcomes of cardiac surgical procedures available in the Database, compare the case mix and outcomes with anonymised collective data, make use of the in-built tools to run sophisticated queries, submit data access requests, and to access Reports.

In order to register to the Database, you must be aged 18 or over and comply with the registration eligibility criteria provided by EACTS. If you register an Account, you will be asked to provide certain information (such as your email address), as part of our security procedures. By registering an account with your email address, you accept and give permission for your email address to be stored in the ACD administration portal. You must treat your Account login details as confidential and you must not disclose them to any third party, with the exception of your authentication provider used to create your Account.

We have the right to disable any Accounts, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of the Terms and Conditions.

If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your Account login details, you must immediately notify us at [email protected].

You are responsible for any unauthorised use of your Account login details.

*If your hospital is a Participant, you may register via your hospital to access the Database; if you register in this manner, you may be further entitled to use the advanced comparison tool to compare your hospital’s data with all other hospitals in the Database. If your hospital is not a Participant, you may only register through EACTS membership. As an EACTS member (subject to membership type), you can access the Database however you will not have access to the advanced comparison tool to compare your hospital with all other hospitals.

Disclaimer

EACTS does not necessarily endorse or recommend any datasets, commercial products, processes, or services linked from, referred to, or provided on the Database. Views and opinions contained within reports, documents, magazine articles, presentations or similar, which contain extracts or data from the EACTS database, do not necessarily reflect the views of EACTS.

The Database, the site, and the information contained therein are provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE” basis without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind (including any implied warranties), and EACTS may update and change the Database and the site from time to time. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue, or change all or any part of the Database without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason the Database or any part of it is unavailable at any time or for any period.

EACTS and its members/partners do not make any recommendations or endorsements regarding the datasets referred to on the Database and are not responsible for their availability, reliability, or accuracy. EACTS acts in good faith and with all reasonable endeavours to provide a full and accurate database; however, EACTS cannot be held liable for the information provided, or for any errors or omissions contained therein

To the maximum extent permitted by law, EACTS (including any of its member/partner organisations) shall not be liable to you for:

any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with use of, or inability to use our site or use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site; and
any indirect or consequential loss or damage, loss of profits, sales, business or revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss or business opportunity, goodwill or reputation or business interruption.

EACTS does not guarantee that access to the Database will be uninterrupted or error-free, nor does EACTS guarantee that the Database or the server that makes it available are free of viruses, bugs or defects.

Requesting data extracts via the Database

The Database allows authorised members of the Participants; authorised members of the Association (“EACTS members”); and authorised internal EACTS staff to examine the outcomes of cardiothoracic surgical procedures available in the Database. The Participants and EACTS Members have access to a range of tools within the Database enabling them to run sophisticated queries.

There may be circumstances where requests for extracts of data from the ACD arise which cannot be met using the inbuilt tools. In such cases, request for an extract may be submitted to EACTS using a specific form provided by EACTS. All requests for data extracts will follow the approach documented and detailed within the EACTS Data Protocol.

If you enquire about a dataset referenced on the Database, your request will be automatically forwarded to the relevant database task force or committee that maintains the dataset (“ACD Task Force“).

EACTS does not hold, and cannot provide, and patient or surgeon specific information. Any attempt to request information on any specific procedure, patient or surgeon will be rejected.

You are responsible for seeking professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on the Database. This shall include conducting your own due diligence on any dataset that you may request to use via the Database.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, EACTS (including any of its member/partner organisations) shall not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with any use of any dataset referred to on our site, including, without limitation, any loss of profits, sales, business or revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation or business interruption. You agree that you shall pursue any claims for loss or damage arising from use of a dataset against the relevant data custodian and not against EACTS.

External Links

Links from the Database to other external sites are provided for convenience and information only. EACTS and its members/partners do not endorse the content or services delivered through these external sites and are not responsible for their availability, reliability, or accuracy. EACTS has no control over the content of these external sites. Permission to reproduce information from these external sites may be required from the external site provider.

The existence of a link from any organisation’s site to EACTS’s site does not imply that EACTS endorses the activities or views of that organisation.

We only link to sites (charity, business or otherwise) if they fulfil the following two conditions: EACTS has an existing partnership with the organisation and/or the link is relevant to the work of EACTS.

Copyright (and other intellectual property rights) restrictions

EACTS is the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in the Database, and in the material published on it.

You may export and print query outputs or reports that are available from the Database for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on the Database.

You may not use any query output or report that you have downloaded from the Database within any journal, article, publication, presentation or similar without the express permission of EACTS. Where such permission is granted,

EACTS may require that EACTS and/or a list of the Participants whose data is included, be acknowledged or cited as the data source
the final draft must be submitted for approval by the EACTS scientific lead or ACD Task Force Chair prior to publication

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on the Database must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our Database for commercial purposes without obtaining permission to do so from us.

Restrictions on your use of the Database

You agree to use the Database only for lawful purposes, and in a manner which does not infringe the rights of, or restrict, or inhibit the use and enjoyment of the Database by any third party. Such restriction includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person and the transmission of offensive material or disruption of normal flow of dialogue within the Database.

You must not misuse the Database by knowingly introducing any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or other harmful programs or material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Database, the server on which the Database is stored, or any server, computer or database connected to the Database. You must not attack the Database via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities, and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Accuracy of Information

Neither EACTS nor its members will be liable for any losses or damage that may result from use of the Database as a consequence of any inaccuracies in, or any omissions from, the information, which it may contain or which may be accessed through the Database.

We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that the information on the Database is accurate at the time of inclusion. However, we make no representations, warranties, or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the information on this Database is free from technical inaccuracies or typographical errors or that the content is accurate, complete, or up to date. We are not liable for any error or omission in, or any failure to update, the information on this Database and any decisions based on the information are your sole responsibility.

Suspension and termination

If you breach any of the Terms and Conditions, we may immediately do any or all of the following (without limitation): issue a warning to you, temporarily or permanently withdraw your right to use the Database; suspend or terminate your Account, issue legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs resulting from the breach (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs), take further legal action against you, and/or disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary to do so.

If you breach any of the Terms and Conditions, your permission to use our Database will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made. Any previously granted rights or permissions to use any such material within presentations, documents, magazine articles or any similar media will be revoked with immediate effect.

Other important terms

If any of the Terms and Conditions should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which the Terms and Conditions are intended to be effective, then to the extent to which that Term and Condition is illegal, invalid and unenforceable within the jurisdiction, it shall be severed and deleted from the Terms and Conditions and the remaining Terms and Conditions shall survive, remain in full force and continue to be binding and enforceable.

The Terms and Conditions, their subject matter, and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.