The American College of Cardiology (ACC) has launched a new initiative that leverages prospective clinical registry data and partnerships—spanning the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, health plans, employers, clinicians and patients—that aims to reduce the administrative burden associated with ensuring the most vulnerable heart disease patients have access to medications that can save their lives.
As part of the initiative, the ACC will work with like-minded stakeholders to proactively identify and address the behavioural and system challenges that clinicians and patients face in prescribing novel therapies.
Once fully-implemented, the initiative will prospectively leverage data from ACC’s National Commissioning Data Repository (NCDR) hospital and outpatient registries, such as the PINNACLE registry, to help clinicians, practices and/or health systems identify which patients are at highest risk of an additional myocardial infarction and who are eligible for newer therapies that could lower their risk. The initiative will provide insights into physician treatment patterns (e.g., adjusting patient doses, following up with lab tests and patient panel intensity) and patient factors (e.g., social determinants, medication burden, comorbidities, etc.). These insights will help practices understand how to address access barriers.
Additionally, the ACC and its partners will pilot ways to implement cost-effectiveness through price reductions, reduce administrative burden through policy and automation, support patient activation and adherence through mutual goal setting and action planning, and optimise the right therapy through the targeting of specific high-risk patient cohorts.
ACC CEO Timothy W Attebery comments: “Advancing quality, equity and value of cardiovascular care is a strategic priority for the College and key to optimising cardiovascular care and outcomes. Changing the narrative around the administrative burden that physicians face in prescribing medications and authorising cardiac procedures is one giant step toward achieving this vision. We are working with external stakeholders across the healthcare industry, including medical societies, pharmaceutical companies, employers and pharmacy benefit managers, to implement a more targeted approach to saving lives.”
The ACC will begin announcing specific programmes and partnerships in the coming months that build on the groundwork that has already been laid toward improving access and put into action initiatives that directly help physicians and patients.
