Changes to ACTION & Mission: Lifeline – How They Affect You

On April 5th, the ACC-NCDR released the following statement:

“Effective April 1, 2017, the NCDR’s ACTION Registry®-GWTG™ will transition to a new operating model to allow for greater data security, collaboration and flexibility around quality improvement efforts – efforts that are increasingly more important in today’s outcomes-focused health care environment.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) actively worked with the American Heart Association (AHA) to ensure the transition to this new model is as seamless as possible. Both the Registry and affiliated programs like Mission: Lifeline will continue to operate as usual. Hospitals currently participating in the Registry will not need to do anything differently and will receive an email notice that Program Requirements have been updated. Hospitals will notice changes to the name and branding that reference ACTION Registry® instead of ACTION Registry®-GWTG™.

If your hospital wishes to cancel participation in this Registry for 2017 due to the change described above, or if you have additional questions regarding this change, please contact NCDR@acc.org. Mission: Lifeline participants should contact AHA for additional program details regarding Mission: Lifeline.”

As of April 1st, 2017 the ACC-NCDR is ending its longstanding partnership with the AHA for the ACTION Registry-GWTG (ARG). In order to continue to provide Mission: Lifeline reporting, the AHA has relaunched the GWTG-CAD tool, which will replace ARG moving forward. We at heartbase are acutely aware of these developments, and are currently in discussions with the Mission: Lifeline staff for clarification; as soon as we hear anything back, we will relay the information to you.

Additionally, Quintiles and AHA are developing a hospital upload tool to provide a similar submission process to that of the NCDR, which will allow third-party vendors such as heartbase to perform submissions.  Once we receive a current data dictionary and data uploader specification, heartbase can begin to develop the GWTG-CAD data collection forms. We are anticipating a release of the heartbase tool by the end of June 2017.

What we know, and how it may affect you (UPDATED 4/28): 

  • According to Art Miller, Director of Mission: Lifeline, participation in GWTG-CAD in 2017 will be free. Cost information for 2018 will be announced in June 2017.
  • A crosswalk and CSV Upload Tool will be available to GWTG-CAD participants in June 2017.
  • AHA-GWTG and ACC-NCDR are partners in Cardiac Accreditation, but will continue to operate separately.  However, relevant clinical registry programs of both groups will support the data requirements for hospitals participating in any ACC/AHA Accreditation offerings.
  • According to a press release from Mission: Lifeline: “GWTG-CAD currently captures many data elements and some measures required for Chest Pain Accreditation and intends to fully support the 23 required measures by Winter 2017.”
  • Click here to read the release from the AHA
  • Click here to review the CAD data collection tool

Rest assured, heartbase is prepared to address these changes.  We will provide you with any new information as it comes to us.

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