When heartbase comes marching in…to New Orleans for NCDR.19!

We missed Mardi Gras by a week, but we are excited to head to the Crescent City March 12-15th for New Orleans’ second biggest party of the year: the  2019 ACC Quality Summit! We are looking forward to getting a sneak peek at upcoming registry changes and future advancements to the NCDR Registries…as well as the amazing food, music and general culture in New Orleans! 

But more than anything, we are excited to see all of our customers. As a company that prides itself on our collegial relationships, we eagerly anticipate meeting with our heartbase user community to discuss updates and improvements to our industry-leading data entry and analytics platform. 

Throughout the conference, we will provide one-on-one demonstrations to current and prospective users alike, covering everything from our fully-integrated registry data entry forms, to our advanced operative noting solutions and merged clinical & financial analytic tools.  

If you’re not a current customer and are interested in a personal demonstration, please click here to set up an appointment! We can’t wait to see you in New Orleans to show you how heartbase can help you share your success story!

Press Release: heartbase Certified for NCDR v3 of CP-MI Registry

As the clock has turned and we embark on a new year, we are excited to announce that heartbase is now certified in the ACC-NCDR Chest Pain – MI (formerly ACTION) Registry. Once again among the first vendors to certify in a major national registry, heartbase completed the extensive process on December 21, 2018, and are now prepared to roll out the update to any facility that currently participates in CP-MI. 

The changes to the new registry version do not end with the name. A few notable changes that users should expect in CP-MI v3 include: 

  • Similar to the CathPCI and ICD Registries, CP-MIv3 will incorporate six downloadable tables for the following data elements:post-procedure events, follow-up events, medications (home, arrival, procedure,and discharge), MV support devices, PCI indications, and Troponin Assay &POC
  • Addition of multiple providers for EmergencyDepartment and Attending Physicians
  • Ability to enter multiple episode events

In the coming weeks, heartbase trainer Carmen Ernst will hold a special training class outlining the changes in v3, along with a review of the updated heartbase web-form. Heartbase customers will be provided with registration information via our newsletter. 

If you are not currently a heartbase customer and would like to take a look at our new forms, please contact heartbase sales associate Alex Potanos

Heartbase is Heading to Hollywood!

We are thrilled to attend this year’s Society of Thoracic Surgeons Advances in Quality & Outcomes  Meeting in Los Angeles, California, from October 26-28th. With summer fading into fall here in Chicago, we’re looking forward to heading to California to soak up the sun, visit with our users, and learn about changes and future advancements to the STS registries.

As exhibitors, heartbase will demonstrate new advances to our already industry-leading hbCOR data entry and submission platform, and will also offer one-on-one presentations of our state-of-the-art merged financial/clinical dashboards, Congenital Registry interrater reliability tool, and fully-automated surgical operative noting solutions.

Above all else, we are excited for the opportunity to spend time with our heartbase users, and as a thank you for their patronage and partnership, we will be holding a cocktail reception on Wednesday, October 26th, following the STS Networking Reception. If you are a heartbase user and haven’t yet signed up to attend our cocktail party, please reach out to Michael Lizer at mlizer@heartbase.net.

If you’re not a current customer and are interested in a personal demonstration, please click here to set up an appointment! We can’t wait to see you in Hollywood to show you how heartbase can help you share your success story!

Press Release: heartbase, Inc. Certified in STS General Thoracic Registry v2.41

CHICAGO, IL – We are excited to announce that heartbase is now officially certified by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons to accept data for the newest version of the General Thoracic Registry. Version 2.41 will go live beginning with July 1st surgeries, and our customers will be given the opportunity to begin working with the new version upon installation.

As has been the trend with national registries, General Thoracic v2.41 has increased in size from 264 fields (245 core) to 412 (378 core), adding 167 new fields and discontinuing only 34. Among the prominent changes in the new version include:

• Analyzed Procedures Data Collection Form (DCF) is now required for all suspected or diagnosed Lung and Esophageal Cancer Resections. Thymus/Mediastinal Mass, Tracheal Resection, and Hiatal Hernia/GERD sections are optional.
• Non-Analyzed Procedures DCF is available, but is not risk adjusted, not analyzed, and not mandatory at this time.
• Updated Data Specifications and Data Dictionary, which includes fields identified for Record Inclusion. (Note: this document has not yet been posted to the STS website).

We believe that it is imperative to give our clients the opportunity to begin using a new registry version the moment it goes live, so our developers have worked tirelessly to streamline our production process for new and updated registries. This commitment to expeditious development has once again allowed us to become one of the very first vendors certified in the new version of a national registry.

To better prepare our customers for the changes to the General Thoracic Registry, heartbase clinical specialist Carmen Ernst will hold a special training class outlining updates to v2.41 along with a review of the updated heartbase web-form and number DCF. Heartbase customers can click here to register for this class.

If you’re a General Thoracic data manager or abstractor and would like to take a look at our new forms, please contact heartbase sales associate Alex Potanos.

Press Release: Heartbase and Biome Announce Partnership

Sausalito, CA and Chicago, IL — March 29, 2018 — Heartbase, Inc., the premier database for
cardiovascular registries, has partnered with clinical performance innovator Biome Analytics to
deliver a new generation of analytic applications that help cardiovascular centers drive superior
outcomes and lower costs. This new initiative will provide hospitals and cardiovascular clinicians with
unprecedented insight into their clinical and financial performance, help them focus on the
opportunities with the greatest impact, and accelerate improvement in their hospital or network.
Working together, heartbase and Biome will provide precision insights and data that cardiovascular
centers need to align teams and profitably deliver superior care, and in the coming weeks, this
combined solution will be made available to existing and prospective clients of both heartbase and
Biome.

“We are always looking for ways to enhance the services we deliver to our clients,” said Stephen
Gawrit, Director of Sales and Operations at heartbase, Inc. “Biome’s analytic offerings expand our
growing portfolio to support key registry developments, including advanced clinical-financial TVTTAVR
reporting.”

In the ever-changing landscape of health care, it has become increasingly important for hospitals to
be able to use their historical data in order to create more cost-effective methods of providing
superior care. Together, heartbase and Biome provide a joint solution that will align physicians and
hospital networks with the trusted data and cutting-edge analytics they need to strengthen their
research and propel them to the top of national rankings.

“Biome is pleased to announce this innovative partnership with heartbase. Helping hospitals and
doctors work together to improve quality and reduce cost is at the core of our mission” said Stuart
Jacobson, President & CEO of Biome. “Together we will help doctors, heart centers, and health
systems deliver superior clinical and financial performance. This is another first for Biome as we
continue on our mission to help care teams deliver better care to more patients at a lower cost.”

Click here to read the full press release.

Press Release: heartbase Certified for CathPCI v5

We are very pleased to announce that heartbase is now officially certified by the ACC-NCDR to accept data for the CathPCI v5 Registry. The first major update to CathPCI since 2009, v5 represents a paradigm shift in the form’s functionality, particularly in the way technology downloads are incorporated.

For the past year, heartbase has worked tirelessly to streamline our development process for new and updated registries, and that work has benefited our clients. We were among the very first to certify for the massive STS Adult Cardiac v2.9 registry, and are uniquely prepared for early certification for STS General Thoracic and ACC-NCDR ACTION updates later this year.

In CathPCI v5, many sections have undergone significant changes, including: History & Risk Factors (such as Tobacco Use), Pre-procedure Assessment, Native & Graft Assessment, and Intra & Post Procedure Events. We have also included the Optional sections for participants who wish to collect data for long term care, including fields from the Seattle Angina Questionnaire, the Rose Dyspnea Scale, & Follow-up. In total, the new version has modified or added nearly 600 fields.

At the time of this press release, heartbase is one of only two vendors certified. We are actively working with the ACC-NCDR to ensure future registry certifications are done in a more prompt and efficient manner to allow for more timely preparation for our clients.

Click here for the complete press release.

Updates on CathPCI v5 & NCDR.18

Though the weather has improved in Chicago, it’s still nowhere near as nice as it is in Orlando! We’re extraordinarily excited to head to Florida next week for the NCDR.18 convention. We’re especially thrilled to demonstrate our CathPCI v5 forms and some of the exciting new features we have developed since last year’s conference.

Currently, we are in the final stage of CathPCI Registry v5 certification and are awaiting word from the NCDR. The first major update to the CathPCI since 2009, v5 represents a radical change to the registry. In CathPCI v5, the Coronary Anatomy section has been substantially fleshed out, with the NCDR adding a considerable number of fields and downloadable lists. We have also added the Optional sections for participants who wish to collect data for long-term care, including fields from the Seattle Questionnaire & the Rose Dyspnea Scale.

Whether you’re a current heartbase user who wants a sneak peak of the new form, or an interested outside party who would like a quick demo of the heartbase platform, stop by and see us! We’ll be in Booth 10, right next to our wonderful abstraction partners, Cardiac Registry Support. Please come by and say hello. If you wish to schedule a demo on Wednesday, March 7th, please reach out to Alex Potanos at 773.697.7821.

We’ll see you in Orlando – safe travels!

CathPCI v5 & NCDR.18 – heartbase is Prepared

It is currently a blustery 27 degrees in heartbase’s home in Chicago, and our developers are hard at work, feverishly fine-tuning our software and preparing for certification of NCDR CathPCI v5. The new version is the largest in the history of the registry, and in many ways represents a paradigm shift in the way the ACC-NCDR records and collects data. We are excited to announce that we are well ahead of the curve in terms of development, and we will be certifying during the first week of February.

We understand that our customers cannot afford to have any blips or dead periods once the new version goes live, so we have been working for months preparing our platform for the earliest possible certification date. During this process, we have also made considerable changes to the platform as a whole in order to make the heartbase experience even more user friendly. Early certification gives us ample time to provide heartbase users with a series of webinars to get them better acquainted with the newly designed forms and features, prior to the April 1st Go-Live.

We are also excited to attend the annual NCDR conference in Orlando, March 7th-9th at the Caribe Royale. With the upcoming CathPCI Go-Live – as well as November’s ACTION update – this year’s conference should be particularly interesting, and we look forward to taking part in the discussions to learn more about the future plans of each of the ACC-NCDR registries. If you’re attending, please stop by our booth for a quick demonstration of our new v5 forms, or just to say hello to Alex, Carmen, Michael, and Stephen!

Like I said, it’s cold here – we can’t wait to see everyone in (hopefully) sunny Orlando!

Thank you to the OTCDMG

Last week, we had the privilege to attend the 15th annual OTCDMG (Ohio Thoracic and Cardiovascular Data Managers Group) Conference in Lima, Ohio. The conference was attended by data managers from all over the Midwest, and featured a jam-packed lineup of speakers who addressed myriad facets of the ever-changing landscape of registry data collection. Heartbase President Nicholas Gawrit had the honor of speaking about interoperability, structured reporting, and Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), of which he is the co-chair of the Technical Committee for the Cardiology Domain.

Special thanks to Vicki Reindel, Teresa Knueve, and the wonderful team at St. Rita’s Medical Center, who hosted the conference and helped make it such a great success. Events like these are invaluable for both the information provided by speakers and the conversations we were able to have with the attendees. While we love attending events like the STS AQO and NCDR national conferences, the intimacy of the OTCDMG conference gave us the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with data managers, who provided us with considerable insight and perspective that we will use to improve and expand the scope of our platform. Thank you to everyone who took the time to visit our booth. We look forward to seeing all of you next year!

Unite with heartbase in Chicago for the STS AQO Meeting!

heartbase is eagerly anticipating next week’s STS Advances in Quality Outcomes Data Manager’s meeting in our hometown of Chicago, Illinois. The AQO, which will take place at the historic Palmer House from October 18-20, focuses on all three STS databases – Adult Cardiac, General Thoracic, and Congenital – and provides attendees with a variety of presentations and discussions that will help them improve patient care and data collection.

The event attracts data and quality managers, RNs, cardiologists and other medical professionals from all around the country, and we’re extraordinarily excited to see so many of our users over the course of the week!

If you are not currently a heartbase user, we will be demoing our state-of-the-art database and analytics platform over the course of the conference. In consideration of the recent natural disasters of the past weeks, we will donate 10 dollars to either the American Red Cross or the ASPCA for each demo scheduled with heartbase at the STS AQO. Demo Attendees will also receive a Starbucks gift card as a show of our appreciation. Please click here to schedule your demo!

We can’t wait to see everyone at the show!

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