The ACC held an appropriate use criteria (AUC) summit on Aug. 9 at its Heart House headquarters in Washington, DC. The summit provided an overview of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) forthcoming AUC program, with discussion among participants about where the program is headed and how the AUC community, including the ACC, can help.

Experts delved into ways the ACC can best collaborate around the development and implementation of AUC and addressed confusion around contradicting AUC recommendations. Other topics included implementation strategies ranging from licensing strategies for AUC content to how best to optimize electronic health record and clinical decision support mechanisms. The summit closed with an interactive discussion around recommendations for future AUC utilization as it pertains to communications and tools for clinicians, recommendations for the clinical community, recommendations for CMS and recommendations regarding electronic health records and clinical decision support mechanisms.

In his closing remarks, summit moderator Stephen F. Jencks, MD, MPH, said, "My takeaways from this summit can be broken down into three primary messages. Firstly, it's not easy for groups to rank their priorities for AUC implementation – all of their priorities are high. Secondly, most of the issues raised today could be categorized as either research or nomenclatural issues, and thirdly, different groups have differing priorities regarding the implementation of this program, and they have considerable financial stake in those priorities. These groups must work out their priorities and issues internally before moving forward."

Read more on the AUC program and ACC's AUC Task Force here.

Keywords: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S., Decision Support Systems, Clinical, Medicaid, Medicare, Electronic Health Records

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