General Information
The Council on Clinical Cardiology greatly values the development of young clinical investigators. To further this effort, the council has a limited number of seed grants for young investigators for meritorious research projects based on the data gathered from Get With The GuidelinesSM (GWTG). A description of GWTG and the database content follows. The Executive Database Steering Committee and the Get With The Guidelines Steering and Science Subcommittee oversee the large database. Members of these committees will be available as mentors to the applicants. Young investigators may be current fellows in training or within five years of completing their cardiology, or neurology fellowship or other doctoral prepared professionals who are early in their career development and have interest in cardiovascular or stroke research.
The seed grants provide adequate funds to 1) allow initial project design, access to the GWTG data and statistical analysis; and 2) cover travel expenses of the recipient to travel to an AHA conference to present the results. Mentors provide recipients methods of clinical research using GWTG Steering or Subcommittee or EDSC databases. Our goal is to have this initial effort succeed in opening future opportunities for research, collaboration and scientific advancement for the young investigator.
What is Get With The Guidelines?
What information is collected in the Get With The Guidelines database?
Process for Developing and Submitting a Proposal
Deadline and Award Information
What is Get With The Guidelines?
Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) is a hospital-based quality improvement program designed to close the treatment gap in cardiovascular disease and stroke. It includes modules for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), heart failure (HF) and stroke. Each program provides physicians and healthcare providers with materials, information and tools based on relevant AHA/ACC guidelines — i.e., for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, for treatment of HF, or the AHA/ASA guidelines for stroke treatment. Using standard protocols in the hospital setting will help ensure that cardiovascular disease patients are placed on appropriate medications, informed of recommended behavioral modifications, and improve the rate of intervention with cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients both in-hospital and post-discharge to reduce the incidence of CVD events. A key component of this continuous quality improvement program is to monitor progress through the Web-based Patient Management Tool (PMT).
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What information is collected in the Get With The Guidelines database?
The information captured in the Get With The Guidelines database parallels the American Heart Association guidelines information.
The GWTG-CAD module collects the following patient-level information:
- Patient ID
- Physician
- Location
- Transferred in (ED)
- Medicare
- Arrival Date/Time
- Admit Date
- Discharge Date/Time
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Medical History
- Hx Smoking
- Cardiac Diagnosis
- Initial ECG
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- Procedures
- Thrombolytic Therapy Administration
- Thromb Date/Time
- PTCA Date/Time
- Height
- Weight
- Blood Pressure
- Lipid Measurement
- Ejection Fraction
- Discharge Status
- ACE at Discharge
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- ARB at Discharge
- ASA at Arrival
- ASA at Discharge
- BB at Arrival
- BB at Discharge
- Participation in an ACEI Clinical Trial?
- Contra to ACEDisc
- Contra to ASAArr
- Contra to ASADisc
- Contra to BBArr
- Contra to BBDisc
- Antiplatelets
- Lipid Lowering Meds
- Other Meds
- Cardiac Rehab
- Smoking Cessation Counseling
- Risk Interventions
- Discharge Instructions to HF
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The GWTG-HF module collects the following patient-level information:
- Patient ID
- Physician/Service
- Transferred in (ED)
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Admit Date
- Discharge Date/Time
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Race
- Medical History
- Hx Smoking
- HF Hx
- Cardiac Diagnosis
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- Medications Prior to Admission
- VITAS Signs
- Height
- Weight
- BMI
- Heart Rate
- BP
- Respiratory Rate
- Lipids
- Labs
- Procedures
- Ejection Fraction
- Discharge Status
- Discharge Meds
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- Other Meds
- ICD Therapy
- Risk Interventions Smoking Cessation Counseling
- Activity Level
- Follow-up
- Symptoms worsening
- Diet
- Medications
- Weight Monitoring
- Referred to Rehab Program
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Process for Developing and Submitting a Proposal
Study questions (hypotheses) need to be developed within the context of data acquired through the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines program. The applicant should review the data elements collected across each of the modules (CAD and Heart Failure). To avoid developing a proposal already in progress, it will also be helpful to review prior published publications and the list provided of abstracts and manuscripts already in process. Data are also collected during hospitalization and longitudinal data post discharge is not available.
Next steps:
1) Complete the online proposal form and send to laura.shuey@heart.org. Please be sure to provide your e-mail address on the form.
2) If you have questions, please contact laura.shuey@heart.org.
Submitted proposals will be reviewed jointly by GWTG committee leadership and/or the leadership of the Councile on Clinical Cardiology to determine funded applications.
If awarded funding, data access will be arranged through a designated GWTG mentor and statistical analysis will be arranged through the Duke Clinical Research Institute. The monetary award will cover statistical analysis up to $6,000 in addition to $2,000 to support travel to the national conference for presentation.
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Deadline (twice a year): March 28 and Sept. 30
Award: Three awards approximately $8,000 each
