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Amy Murphy amurphy@acc.org,
(202) 375-6476
October
26, 2009
AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY LAUNCHES THE
NATION’S FIRST
REGISTRY-BASED CARDIOVASCULAR PRACTICE NETWORK
PINNACLE Network™ Links Thousands of Clinical Cardiovascular
Practices to Promote Practice Innovation and Clinical Excellence
Washington, DC – The American College of Cardiology
today announced the launch of the PINNACLE Network™,
the first-ever registry-based cardiovascular network to link
thousands of cardiology practices to each other and to the
ACC’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry® (NCDR),
the preeminent cardiovascular data repository in the United
States.
The PINNACLE Network™ immediately addresses the rapidly
shifting business environment that private cardiovascular
practices face with a wealth of practice management and financial
management tools. The PINNACLE Network™ also builds
a foundation for innovative, registry-based systems to reward
practices for the high quality care that they provide.
“With the legislative and regulatory threats to traditional
payment systems and the emergence of value-based payment programs,
the ACC is in a unique position to develop and offer the PINNACLE
Network™ with its suite of practice management tools
to help practices not only survive but thrive,” said
Alfred A. Bove, M.D., Ph.D., president of the ACC.
A comprehensive practice management system, the PINNACLE
Network™ provides financial management tools to help
practices thrive; workforce strategies to enable physicians
to meet the increasing demand for cardiovascular care; guidance
for the adoption of health information technology; and risk
management education and strategies to lower the cost of liability
premiums.
The PINNACLE Network™ will provide access to data management
systems that translate data into clinical insights and leverages
the power of the ACC’s national data registries to give
practices negotiating power with payers for value-based payment
systems.
“Embedding quality improvement and value-based payment
in the natural flow of practice operations will be the foundation
for a practice’s success clinically, financially and
professionally,” said Janet Wright, M.D., the ACC’s
senior vice president for Science and Quality. “By creating
health information technology solutions for using ACC Guidelines
and Appropriate Use Criteria at the point of care, the PINNACLE
Network™ will show patients, colleagues and the health
care community that we are delivering the right care for the
right patient at the right time.”
The PINNACLE Network™ is powered by the PINNACLE Registry™,
the nation’s first operational office-based data registry
and will provide a centralized system for clinical practices
to promote practice innovations and achieve clinical excellence.
The PINNACLE Registry™, designed by cardiologists,
benefits from its two-year pilot phase as the IC3 Program
and now will be integrated into the NCDR® to provide participants
with access to both hospital and ambulatory patient-focused
data. As one of the largest practice-level scientific efforts
undertaken in the United States, the IC3 Program®, now
the PINNACLE Registry™, contains hundreds of thousands
of clinical patient records focusing on four common cardiac
conditions – coronary artery disease, hypertension,
heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
For more information on the ACC’s PINNACLE Network™
visit www.pinnaclenetwork.org.
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About the ACC:
The American College of Cardiology is leading the way to optimal
cardiovascular care and disease prevention. The College is
a 37,000-member nonprofit medical society and bestows the
credential Fellow of the American College of Cardiology upon
physicians who meet its stringent qualifications. The College
is a leader in the formulation of health policy, standards
and guidelines, and is a staunch supporter of cardiovascular
research. The ACC provides professional education and operates
national registries for the measurement and improvement of
quality care. More information about the association is available
online at www.acc.org .
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