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Objective Although quality indicators for the care of patients having acute myocardial infarction have been described for other countries, there are none specifically tailored to the Chinese health-care system. The study objective was to develop quality indicators for acute myocardial infarction in China, which measure and improve the quality of care for this patient population, and which could be reported on performance reports. Design A modified Delphi process regarding association with seven dimensions (evidence-based, usefulness, interpretable, validity, prevention, feasibility and overall assessment) on a 5-point scale. Participants A 17-member multidisciplinary expert panel was assembled, including 6 thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons and 11 cardiovascular internists. Main outcome measure Indicators with an arithmetic mean score of >4 in the overall assessment group were considered for the discussion round with the panelists. Results A total of 60 quality indicators were examined. There were 33 quality indicators with scores >4. This list was distilled to 23 indicators related to quality of care. These selected indicators consisted of 5 outcome variables, 15 process of care variables and 3 structure variables. Conclusions This set of consensus quality indicators can be used as a standard list to be monitored by providers of acute myocardial infarction care in an effort to continuously evaluate and improve their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]