Performance assessment model for guideline-recommended pharmacotherapy in the secondary prevention of coronary artery disease and treatment of left ventricular dysfunction

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the National Heart Lung and Blood institute of the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Cardiology have all developed guidelines for improving the care of patients with cardiovascular disease. The guidelines include recommendations for intensive lipid-lowering therapy in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in those patients with symptomatic heart failure and asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction. Despite clinical trial evidence and consensus that these therapies improve survival in high-risk patients, data suggest that there is wide variation in the delivery of guideline-based care. To investigate whether evidence-based assessment of provider practice patterns can impact the delivery of quality cost-effective care, Merck and Company, in conjunction with leading cardiology group practices, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Medical Review of North Carolina developed an ambulatory medical record abstraction study. This quality assurance initiative was conducted at practices beginning in the spring of 1996 and continues. Medical records and administrative claims of patients with ischemic heart disease or heart failure were abstracted by a healthcare consulting organization to maintain patient and physician confidentiality. As of mid-July 1997, 626 group practices had completed the medical record abstraction process, with >1,136 practices participating at some stage of the project; >6,000 physicians participated in the project and >270,000 patients charts were abstracted. Analysis of these data will provide insight and benchmark patterns of care in the pharmacologic management of heart failure and CAD. This project represents a unique collaboration between a pharmaceutical company, an academic institution, a Peer Review Organization, and practicing physicians, to support evidence-based best medical practices. (C) 1997 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.