Nearly 1,600 professionals are expected at NCDR.17 to learn quality improvement best practices, sharpen and learn new skills, and network. This year's annual conference will be held March 13-15 at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Washington, DC.

“A key benefit of attending NCDR.17 is a deeper understanding of NCDR and how it can facilitate the capacity of hospitals and health systems to optimize their quality,” said Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Management Board and NCDR chief science officer.

Robert M. Califf, MD, MACC, a champion of the value of real-world evidence, particularly from professional registries such as NCDR, will kick off the conference by giving the Ralph G. Brindis Endowed Keynote Lecture. Ben Harder, who oversees the Best Hospitals rankings at U.S. News & World Report, and who was recently recognized as one of the 60 most powerful people in health care in 2016 by Becker’s Hospital Review, is one of several other notable speakers throughout the three-day conference.

Registry-specific concurrent workshops throughout the conference will allow conference participants to deep-dive into individual registries and provide updates and opportunities to discuss data quality issues. Two pre-conference workshops on March 13 will introduce participants to the new LAAO Registry and provide an overview of NCDR for those new to the conference and ACC registries in general. New this year, two pre-conference workshops on Cath Lab and Chest Pain accreditation, led by ACC Accreditation Services, will also take place.

The contribution of registry data to achieving ac-creditation and the synergy between the mission and values of NCDR and ACC Accreditation Services made this a natural evolution within the meeting, said Ralph G. Brindis, MD, MPH, MACC, co-chair of NCDR.17.

Keywords: ACC Publications, Cardiology Magazine, ACC17, ACC Annual Scientific Session, National Cardiovascular Data Registries, Registries, Quality Improvement, Accreditation