When the ACC launched the NCDR in 1997, the primary focus was helping individual hospitals measure and improve cardiovascular care by applying clinical data. At the time, data were rarely used or shared beyond the participating hospital or the ACC, and “data quality” was tied to ensuring all required data elements were recorded. Fast forward two decades, NCDR’s reach has grown, and so has the definition of data quality.

As the U.S. health care system transforms from a fee-for-service model to one focused on value-based care, it’s become increasingly important to track health care outcomes through registry programs like the NCDR. While participants in any of NCDR’s 10 registries continue to track, measure and benchmark their performance, registry data also are used for research, quality improvement, post-market surveillance and reimbursement.

For example, data from the ICD Registry, STS/ACC TVT Registry and the LAAO Registry have been linked with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services national coverage determinations to provide evidence development and proof of compliance with reimbursement criteria. The National Quality Forum has also endorsed performance measures from the CathPCI Registry, ICD Registry and Chest Pain – MI Registry that are used in NCDR’s voluntary public reporting program.

In addition, NCDR increasingly leverages data to provide real-world evidence of the effects of health policy changes or adherence to clinical guidelines. Hospitals participating in the CathPCI Registry can also track and monitor their alignment with appropriate use criteria (AUC) – a feature that will roll out to other registries, including the ICD Registry, in the near future. More recently, the College has aligned NCDR data collection with its ACC Accreditation Services requirements for Chest Pain Center Accreditation, Cardiac Cath Lab Accreditation and Electrophysiology Accreditation.

“For more than 20 years, the NCDR has proven itself as a trusted and valuable source of cardiovascular clinical data,” says Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, MSPH, FACC, chair of the NCDR Management Board and NCDR chief science officer. “We have broadened the NCDR portfolio because, in the face of important clinical needs for quality assessment, we have rigorous data quality processes in place that we are continually improving.”

Looking ahead, ensuring and maintaining the highest level of data quality is paramount to NCDR. The goal of all these efforts is to not only ensure data quality, but to also reduce the data burden for participating sites, says Masoudi. “As the leading source of cardiovascular clinical data that supports physicians and hospitals in delivering care that optimizes patient outcomes, the College must continue to find ways to engage physicians, nurses, administrators and other stakeholders in the registry programs in a manner that ensures both the highest level of data quality and the broadest use of data to improve care delivery.”

Keywords: Quality Improvement, Benchmarking, Registries, Data Collection, Health Policy, Accreditation, National Cardiovascular Data Registries, Quality Summit

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