Best Practices for Developing Cardiovascular Quality Indicators

The Canadian Heart Health Strategy and Action Plan recommended that the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) lead the development of pan-Canadian data definitions and quality indicators (QIs) for evaluating cardiovascular care in Canada. In response to this recommendation, the CCS developed and adopted a standardized QI development methodology. This report provides a brief overview of the CCS "Best Practices" for developing pan-Canadian cardiovascular QIs. A more detailed description is available in Supplemental Material. The CCS Best Practices QI development methodology consists of 3 phases: phase I, plan and organize the QI development initiative; phase II, develop and select QIs; and phase III, operationalize the QIs. Phase I includes identifying the cardiovascular focus or content area, determining the objective and/or purpose of the initiative, the target users of, and the target population for, the QIs, and selection of a QI working group. Phase II involves formulating the QIs including generating a preliminary set of QIs and draft definitions, followed by an indicator rating and ranking process based on the CCS QI rating criteria. Phase III involves finalizing technical specifications and pilot testing the QIs. It also describes the CCS QI approval process and addresses knowledge translation. Adoption of a standardized methodology for QI development will improve the quality, completeness, acceptability, and usability of pan-Canadian cardiovascular QIs developed by the CCS. Public release of the QI definitions and related performance data might help improve patient care quality and outcomes.