Washington, DC, -- The American College of Cardiology Foundation's National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDRTM) announced today that it will launch a new initiative to improve safety and outcomes for patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). This initiative will combine the data collection and quality reporting features of two leading national ACS registries to create the largest and most comprehensive national cardiovascular patient database ever developed. The NCDR-ACTION Registry will establish a national standard for understanding treatment patterns, clinical outcomes, drug safety, and the overall quality of care provided for ACS patients.
The NCDR-ACTION Registry (Acute Coronary Treatment and Intervention Outcomes Network) will launch January 1, 2007. The NCDR-ACTION Registry represents the combination of:
- The National Registry for Myocardial Infarction (NRMI), an observational study sponsored by Genentech, Inc., and
- CRUSADE, a quality improvement program coordinated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and sponsored by Schering Plough and Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Partnership.
The collaborative approach of NRMI, CRUSADE and the NCDRTM will build upon a history of credible, well-established registry experience to provide new capabilities for broader reporting, benchmarking, and quality improvement in a standardized environment. NCDR-ACTION will provide a streamlined method of collecting, monitoring and reporting clinically-relevant cardiovascular data within a framework that ensures both hospital and patient confidentiality.
"This harmonization of registries allows hospitals to contribute to a clinical database that includes the full spectrum of patients with ACS," says Steven Nissen, M.D., F.A.C.C., president of the American College of Cardiology. "Our common goal is to improve patient care through the monumental effort of these contributing, credible registries and their commitment to measurement and improvement of our nation's leading cause of death, coronary heart disease."
Over the past ten years, more than 1,700 US hospitals have participated in one or more separate ACS-based quality improvement efforts led by NRMI, CRUSADE, and the NCDRTM. The new partnership between NCDR and DCRI will integrate myocardial infarction data from hundreds of hospitals across the country into one unified platform with standardized clinical data elements to benchmark outcomes, analyze treatment and call attention to quality improvement opportunities. DCRI will also provide research and analytical support for the NCDRTM flagship registry, the NCDR-CathPCI RegistryTM.
"Beginning with this monumental collaboration, NRMI and CRUSADE registries will merge into the NCDR-ACTION Registry, allowing for streamlined enrollment from hospitals, the means to create consistent methodologies for data elements, data submission, and the potential to collect CMS and JCAHO core measures," says Ralph Brindis, M.P.H., M.D., F.A.C.C., Chief Medical Officer and Chairman of the NCDR Management Board. "The NCDR-ACTION Registry will enhance national quality improvement efforts and standardize reporting requirements for ACS."
NCDRTM advises NRMI or CRUSADE participants and those who are interested in participating in the ACTION RegistryTM to go to www.accncdr.org or call 800-257-4737 for more information.
About the American College of Cardiology Foundation
The American College of Cardiology Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advocacy of quality cardiovascular care through education, research promotion, development and the application of standards and guidelines. The Foundation, which also aims to influence health care policy, is aligned with the mission and goals of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), a 34,000-member nonprofit medical society that provides professional education and operates national registries for the measurement and improvement of quality care.
About the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI)
The National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI), sponsored by Genentech, Inc. is one of the largest observational studies of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Since 1990, NRMI has collected data on more than 2.5 million AMI patients, and helped more than 1,700 participating hospitals assess their approach to AMI treatment and identify trends in patient outcome. It is not a controlled randomized clinical trial. It does not test effectiveness between therapeutic interventions, and therefore comparisons of outcomes across treatment groups must be treated with caution.
About the DCRI
The DCRI is a full-service academic (contract) research organization committed to its academic mission: "To develop and share knowledge that improves the care of patients around the world through innovative clinical research." Our organization's fundamental motivation is to improve care for our patients by expanding an evidence-based approach via outcomes assessment and clinical trials research. In addition to spearheading large, randomized clinical trials, the DCRI is recognized both nationally and internationally a leader in many areas of outcomes research, including: large registry analyses, quality improvement initiatives, and cost effectiveness and quality of life assessment.