AAHPM and Partners Receive Grant to Fund National Registries Project

Clinical data registries (CDRs) have the potential to demonstrate value and drive measure development within the specialty of hospice and palliative medicine. They also advance Maintenance of Certification and research endeavors and promote national quality improvement. The increasing requirement for quality reporting within value-based payment programs has elevated the need for organized data systems.

Physicians that submit data to a qualified CDR can satisfy some of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-Based Incentive Performance System (MIPS) program requirements. With the emergence of MACRA, several organizations have expressed an interest in coming together to discuss a coordinated approach to developing or connecting CDRs for hospice and palliative medicine.

“To improve the care of patients with serious illness, we need to develop, test and implement quality measures that matter for them and provide reporting platforms that empower clinicians to engage in quality improvement,” states AAHPM Chief Medical Officer Joe Rotella, MD MBA HMDC FAAHPM. He notes that existing registries supply important pieces for solving the quality puzzle, but a complete solution will require deeper collaboration and integration.

With this goal in mind, AAHPM and its partner organizations, the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), the National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC), the Global Palliative Care Quality Alliance (GPCQA), and the Palliative Care Quality Network (PCQN), recently developed a proposal and were awarded a $487,000 grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to explore the feasibility for integrating existing registries or creating a new one to advance the quality of care for patients with serious illness. AAHPM will serve as the lead organization to guide and organize this project in recognition of its mission and role as a national medical specialty society. Quality Committee chairs Christine Ritchie and Laura Hanson will serve in the Project Co-Lead roles. The activities funded by the grant will occur over a 12 month period (November 2016 – November 2017).

Over the past year, the Academy has convened groups of registry developers and other stakeholders from hospice and palliative care. “AAHPM is helping to bring key stakeholders together to identify a quality infrastructure and resources needed for hospice and palliative care clinicians and their patients,” Christian Sinclair, MD FAAHPM, Academy president adds. “This support from the Moore Foundation will help us move forward together.”

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation fosters path-breaking scientific discovery, environmental conservation, patient care improvements and preservation of the special character of the Bay Area. Visit Moore.org and follow @MooreFound.

Fore more information about this work and registries in general, visit our website.

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