CHICAGO – The Anesthesia Quality Institute (AQI), a related organization of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), announced today a quality-driven initiative dedicated to further developing the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR), the largest anesthesia registry in the country. The initiative, supported by Edwards Lifesciences, represents a shared vision between AQI and Edwards to improve data collection and analysis, including new tracking and feedback of intraoperative hypotension (low blood pressure), to better inform future quality standards that can positively impact patient outcomes.
“AQI is committed to improve processes that promote better patient care,” said J.P. Abenstein, M.D., FASA, chair, AQI Board of Directors. “In addition to enriching data in the NACOR database, we hope that capturing incidents of intraoperative hypotension can provide meaningful insights to inform potential future guidelines for hypotension management and improvements to the quality of care patients receive.”
NACOR’s existing infrastructure will be expanded to allow the registry to accommodate more detailed data to assess the quality of anesthesia care, including the incidence of intraoperative hypotension, which research shows there are strong associations between intraoperative hypotension and poor clinical outcomes, including heart and kidney injury, and death.
“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recognized intraoperative hypotension as a serious risk to patients by approving a Qualified Clinical Data Registry measure on this issue beginning in 2020,” said Katie Szyman, Edwards’ corporate vice president, critical care. “Through our support of AQI, we ultimately hope to help anesthesiologists, anesthesiologist assistants, nurse anesthetists, and other health care professionals assess and improve care for patients through use of enhanced data collection, reporting and feedback, which includes evaluating intraoperative hypotension.”
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS
Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 54,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves.
For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/WhenSecondsCount. Like ASA on Facebook, follow ASALifeline on Twitter.
ANESTHESIA QUALITY INITIATIVE
AQI was established by the American Society of Anesthesiologists in 2008 to facilitate practice-based quality management through education and quality data feedback. Through education and quality feedback, AQI helps to improve the quality care of patients, lower anesthesia mortality and lower anesthesia incidents." AQI is listed as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), ASA is a member of the National Quality Forum (NQF) and NACOR is a Qualified Registry (QR) and a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR).
ABOUT EDWARDS LIFESCIENCES
Edwards Lifesciences, based in Irvine, Calif., is the global leader of patient-focused medical innovations for structural heart disease and critical care monitoring. We are driven by a passion for patients, dedicated to improving and enhancing lives through partnerships with clinicians and stakeholders across the global healthcare landscape. For more information, visit Edwards.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.
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