This new registry will establish the national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease.

View press release

ACTION Registry–GWTG will be the largest and most comprehensive national AMI patient database ever developed by the medical profession. It will establish a national standard for understanding and improving the quality, safety and outcomes of care provided for patients with coronary artery disease, specifically, high-risk STEMI and NSTEMI patients.

The official transition date from GWTG-CAD to ACTION Registry–GWTG has not been determined, but will likely take nine to 12 months and additional activities may need to take place beyond this time frame.

American Heart Association Quality Improvement Staff
The American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines field staff will continue to interact with GWTG-CAD participants as they transition into ACTION Registry–GWTG.  After the transition, AHA staff will continue to provide ongoing quality improvement activities, such as workshops and teleconferences.

NCDR will provide enrollment and contracting support, training and orientation, data coding expertise and report interpretation consultation for ACTION Registry–GWTG.

Marketing and Promotions
Marketing and promotional support for ACTION Registry–GWTG will continue. The AHA and ACC are creating guidelines for the ongoing promotion and marketing of ACTION Registry–GWTG.

Recognition Program
Current GWTG-CAD participants will be recognized as planned at AHA's Scientific Sessions 2008 and in a December advertisement in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Specific efforts to support customer recognition beyond Jan. 1, 2009, are underway.

Outcome Sciences, Inc.
Outcome Sciences, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., the company that developed the Patient Management Tool^TM for GWTG-CAD, is a contracted NCDR vendor currently developing ACTION Registry–GWTG data collection tool. The ACC will list Outcome on its site as a certified NCDR vendor once that certification is achieved.

Outcome Sciences will determine contract changes for its customers who transition to ACTION Registry–GWTG.

Two contracts will be required to participate in ACTION Registry–GWTG. One is with the ACCF and the other is with the hospital’s third-party software vendor.

Features of ACTION Registry–GWTG

• More robust data collection tool, focusing on high-risk STEMI and NSTEMI patients
• More comprehensive data fields
• Risk-adjusted comparative benchmark reports, generated quarterly, represent a larger hospital pool with the inclusion of the NCDR hospitals. (GWTG-CAD does not provide risk-adjusted data)
• Monthly Webinars for GWTG–CAD participants will include data entry and technical assistance
• Coding and data entry questions will be answered by the ACTION Registry–GWTG participant support line; the participant’s software vendor will handle technical questions
• Contracting will occur with the ACCF and the participant’s software vendor
• Some elements of the GWTG-CAD recognition program will remain, although requirements may be adjusted
• Requires 100 percent capture and data completion (error free file)