Long recognized as the meeting for the cardiovascular quality improvement professional community, NCDR.17 is expanding its education offerings with two pre-conference workshops on accreditation, led by ACC Accreditation Services. The contribution of registry data to achieving accreditation and the synergy between the mission and values of NCDR and ACC Accreditation Services makes this a natural evolution within the annual meeting, says Ralph G. Brindis, MD, MPH, MACC, co-chair of NCDR.17. 

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,“ and thereby position themselves very well to operate within the new policy environment of reimbursement being tied to high quality care,” says Frederick A. Masoudi, MD, FACC, chair of the NCDR Management Board and chief science officer of the NCDR. Hospital systems increasingly recognize the critical importance of NCDR to make the transition from payment for volume to payment for value. 

Registry data drive improvement by measuring performance and identifying gaps in treatment and patient outcomes, while accreditation drives improvement by providing evidence-based and nationally accepted standards for hospitals and health systems to measure their individual performance. “These accreditation standards are developed by leaders and experts in the field who are members of the ACC, providing a credible resource that can be trusted by health systems and the public,” says Kathleen Hewitt, MSN, RN, AACC. 

From March 13 to 15, nearly 1,600 professionals will join NCDR.17, held at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Washington, DC. NCDR.17 continues to be the place to learn quality improvement best practices, sharpen and learn new skills, and network.

A pre-conference workshop on the LAAO Registry and one called NCDR Orientation 101 will be held on March 13.  On March 12 and 13, a CathLab Accreditation Workshop and a Chest Pain Accreditation Workshop also will be held.

“This is a great opportunity to help hospitals and physicians to continue to improve the quality of care,” says Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, FACC, chair of the College’s CathLab Accreditation Committee, and executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs in the Heart & Vascular Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The workshop participants will learn about the elements of the accreditation program and how the CathPCI registry and ACTION registry contribute to attaining accreditation – and they will be able to start the process.

“Accreditation is inherently interprofessional,” says Phillip Levy, MD, chair of the ACC Accreditation Management Board, making it a perfect fit within NCDR.17. Levy will be moderating a session on this topic in the NCDR.17 Interprofessional Track. Other topics in this track, selected for the full range of conference participants, including registry professionals, quality experts, cardiovascular administrators and physicians, include financial and operational challenges, and a look at the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 and NCDR in the payment reform era.

Robert M. Califf, MD, MACC, a champion of the value of real-world evidence, particularly from professional registries such as NCDR, will deliver the Ralph G. Brindis Endowed Keynote Lecture. Califf, a cardiovascular specialist and the immediate past commissioner of the Food and Drug (FDA), has focused on high-quality, credible evidence generation to inform patients, hospitals, and government regulatory agencies in terms of safety, efficacy, and post-market surveillance, and to inform clinicians about best therapies.

“Dr. Califf’s lecture will surely validate the work of the quality analysts and all who work on a daily basis, often with too little recognition, to serve the goal of improving cardiovascular care for patients,” says Brindis.

Among the notable speakers in the general sessions is 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. Harder will be joined in a session on public reporting by Karen Joynt, MD, MPH, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Greg Dehmer, MD, MACC, head of the NCDR Public Reporting Advisory Group. Two other speakers from the FDA, William Maisel MD, MPH, and Jeffrey Shuren MD, JD (by video), will discuss the vision and priorities of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

Registry-specific concurrent workshops give conference participants a deep-dive into a registry and provide updates and the opportunity to discuss data quality issues. As always, participants can customize their conference program. This year an app is being introduced that will assist with conference planning, and will offer many benefits during the conference, including keyword searches of presentations, access to the online handouts, and connecting with other participants. Look for the NCDR.17 app in February.

Keywords: ACC Publications, Cardiology Interventions, Accreditation, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Chest Pain, Medicaid, Medicare, Quality Improvement, Radiologic Health, Registries

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