January 29, 2018 — The American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) announced that ImageGuideEcho, a module under the ImageGuide Registry platform, is now open to enrollment for U.S.-based physicians. ImageGuideEcho is the first registry, according to ASE, exclusively devoted to measuring quality in cardiovascular ultrasound. Its mission is to provide the framework necessary to support a community of cardiology labs committed to patient-centered imaging, patient safety, outcome improvement, practice transformation, and innovation through ongoing data collection and quality improvement.
ASE President Vera Rigolin, M.D., FASE said, “The launch of ImageGuideEcho reflects a key society objective years in the making, and we are thrilled to begin its realization. We look forward to the continued development and growth of the registry as ASE puts echo data into the hands of its physicians with the ultimate goal of improving quality of care for our patients.”
Participation in the ImageGuide Registry will assist cardiovascular imaging physicians with satisfying Medicare reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) legislation. Furthermore, targeted quality measures assessing echo-specific metrics allow echo labs to receive valuable feedback unique to the modality. Through examination of these quality metrics, imaging physicians have the capability to both inform healthcare decisions and quantify quality improvement in a way that has not previously been undertaken.
Sherif Nagueh, M.D., FASE, medical director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at Houston Methodist Hospital and chair of the ASE Registry Committee, stated, “Lab managers can look to this registry to provide quality feedback metrics per individual physician and across the entire lab in comparison to national standards. This feedback loop is essential to continual quality improvement. The volume of patient encounters expected in this registry will also be an advantage for future imaging research efforts.”
ASE is partnering with Gold Level supporter Lantheus Medical Imaging and Silver Level supporters Bracco Diagnostics Inc. and the National Board of Echocardiography within the ImageGuideEcho module.
ImageGuideEcho is a free member benefit for U.S.-based physicians in 2018. ASE, with its partners support, is underwriting the cost of the enrollment to benefit the field of cardiovascular ultrasound.
For more information: www.asecho.org
