International experience in stroke registries: lessons learned in establishing the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network.

This paper discusses the early lessons learned in establishing the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network (RCSN), particularly the pitfalls related to the requirement for informed patient (or surrogate) consent for inclusion in the registry. The need for stroke registries to collect accurate data that are representative of all patients with acute stroke in a given community is emphasized, and how the current methodology strives to reach this goal is outlined.