The ACC media team earlier today hosted a pen-and-pad session with major media outlets to discuss the importance of the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR). NCDR has been a major presence at ACC.10 and i2 Summit: 22 abstracts using its data were presented in oral presentations and poster presentations (for more information on NCDR abstracts, go to ACC Central, Booth 2244, and ask for the NCDR Guide to Research Posters and Presentations, which has complete information on the time and location of the NCDR presentations).

I think this focus on NCDR highlights an important point: while we currently base our most rigorous clinical documents, guidelines, on clinical trials, there’s a real need to understand real-world, in-the-trenches patient data and use that to improve care and inform clinical science.

This is, of course, easier said than done. Right now, we have the data from the hospitals that participate in the suite of NCDR registries. In the ambulatory setting, we continue to enroll and extract data from practices participating in the PINNACLE Registry. But we are still are missing data from the minority of CV hospitals and practices without the resources to participate in NCDR … yet! Even for the data we do have, we are challenged to link the outpatient and inpatient data without a better national interoperability infrastructure.

At the event today, health IT was brought up as a crucial component to understanding real-world patient data. Without health IT, practitioners lack the ability to more easily understand trends in their patient population and clinical habits. The data mining made possible by an electronic health record is not possible with a paper health record without a crippling amount of administrative hassle. To continuously take our quality of care to the next level, advanced health IT will be necessary. (Learn more about ACC’s health IT efforts here.)

What do you think? How important is using real-world patient data to inform clinical documents? Take the poll below and leave your comments on the blog by clicking the “comment” link under the poll.

*** Image from Flickr (Sir Twilight King). ***

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