The Better Cardiac Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People project is an initiative of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council that aims to reduce deaths and ill health from cardiac conditions among Indigenous Australians.

A set of 21 measures were developed to monitor the progress of the project. Data are available to report on 14 of the measures. This report is the third national report in which data were updated and/or modified for 11 measures that were reported in previous reports. In addition, it provides new data for 3 other measures.

Key findings:

Some progress has been made toward better cardiac care for Indigenous Australians—the level of access for cardiac-related health services is improving, and the mortality rate from cardiac conditions is falling among the Indigenous population.

But there are still challenges in some areas—the incidence and recurrent rates of acute rheumatic fever among Indigenous Australians were much higher than among non-Indigenous Australians, and while the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease is falling, it is still much higher among Indigenous Australians than non-Indigenous Australians.