At the heart of ICNARC is the CMP, a national clinical audit around which the organisation has grown.
Where it all began
The CMP evolved from the success of the late 80s/early 90s Intensive Care Society (ICS) APACHE II Study on patient outcomes from critical care units.
At that time there was a distinct lack of information available on the effectiveness, organisation and therapies involved in critical care.
To address this issue, in 1991 on behalf of the ICS, Professor Kathy Rowan submitted a proposal to the Department of Health to set up a national centre for comparative audit and research in critical care.
Launching the audit
In 1993 initial financial support was obtained from the Department of Health and the Welsh Health Common Services Authority.
The CMP began in 1994, separate from the ICS, to provide an independent, national resource for the monitoring and evaluation of critical care.
Growing in scale
In the years since being established, participation in the CMP has grown to encompass the majority of critical care units across England,Wales and Northern Ireland.
The best model for predicting patient mortality
By 2007, after several years of work to establish the best risk prediction model, using over 200,000 admissions in the CMP Database, the ICNARC model was completed to compliment and exceed the APACHE II model.
We continue to seek improvements to both the ICNARC and APACHE II models, which are regularly recalibrated to CMP data. The vastly increased quantity of data amassed has enabled even greater accuracy of analysis.
One of the largest critical care databases in the world
In 2013 the CMP passed the milestone of 1.5 million patients recorded on its database.
Providing regular analysis for participants and collaborative research, this unique wealth of accurate data is invaluable for improving management of health services and future plans for intensive care provision.