ACC/AHA Key Data Elements and Definitions for Measuring the Clinical Management of Chronic Heart Failure

1124918429571HFDataStndsFinal.pdf (application/pdf Object)
PREAMBLE
The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recognize the importance of refining the lexicon used to describe the process and outcomes of clinical care, whether in randomized trials, observational studies, registries, or quality improvement initiatives. Broad professional agreement on a common vocabulary with common definitions will facilitate cross-study comparisons or, when advantageous, combining of data across studies and improving the assessment of any project’s generalizability to clinical practice. To further efforts aimed at standardizing such a
lexicon, the ACC and AHA have undertaken to develop and publish clinical data standards—sets of standardized data elements and corresponding definitions that can be used in a variety of data collection efforts for a range of cardiovascular conditions.
It is hoped that these clinical data standards will:
1. Improve cross-comparison of results and clinical outcomes between different trials and registries.
2. Facilitate the development and conduct of future registries, at both hospital and national levels, by providing a list of major variables, outcomes, and definitions.
3. Facilitate measurement for quality improvement programs.
4. Become the basis for a standardized medical documentation process with the anticipation that the medical record will progress to an electronic format.