Although more than 900,000 echocardiograms are performed each year in Australia, there is no systematic method of capturing and comparing data from these tests. The newly developed National Echo Database Australia (NEDA) is already the largest echo database in the world. NEDA is designed to obtain measurements and report data, but no images, from each digital echo laboratory across Australia and transfer this important information to a secure database for comparison against mortality data. This broad approach to data collection will allow researchers to answer a series of important questions about heart disease.