(NewMediaWire) – November 17, 2020 – DALLAS – All scientific researchers from across the United States are now able to submit research proposals to the American Heart Association’s Quality Research program to use its nationwide dataset from the COVID-19 CVD Registry Powered by Get With The Guidelines®. Previous proposals were only considered from the initial participating 160 sites submitting data.
The Association’s COVID-19 CVD Registry captures data on patient clinical characteristics, medications, treatments, labs, vitals, biomarkers and outcomes for adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 including those without a history of cardiovascular disease or stroke. To date, more than 22,000 deidentified patients’ health measures and data points are available in the registry.
The deadline for the third round of research proposals is Wednesday, December 2, 2020, at 5 p.m. CST. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis by the Association’s COVID-19 Research and Publications Committee and will be evaluated based on priority, novel contribution to the scientific literature, feasibility with the data collected and merit.
Accepted proposals will contribute to the further understanding of the complexities of COVID-19 and its impact on cardiovascular and stroke care and outcomes. Once accepted, researchers can begin analyzing the data collected on the case record form on the Precision Medicine Platform.
“Research is key to tracking the effectiveness of treatments and patterns in patient outcomes. Having access to this rapidly growing data set provides the potential for multiple teams to develop simultaneous breakthroughs on multiple fronts,” explains James de Lemos, M.D., volunteer co-chair of the steering committee for the registry and professor of medicine and the Sweetheart Ball-Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D., distinguished chair in Cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “This is instrumental in helping health care professionals gather the evidence needed to rapidly adjust protocols for COVID-19 patients and reflects the importance of the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 CVD registry.”
The American Heart Association, the leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives, built this innovative, hospital-based, quality improvement program with more than two decades of success delivering its Get With The Guidelines® (GWTG) programs to hospitals and health systems across the U.S. GWTG programs that collect data on evidence-based quality achievement measures that can help inform patient decision making.
In alignment with the American Heart Association’s efforts to accelerate research impact and streamline research collaboration, this data is made available for approved research on the AHA Precision Medicine Platform (PMP), a secure cloud-computing platform hosted by the Association’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine. Through the Precision Medicine Platform, the Association makes the aggregate, deidentified dataset available to many researchers simultaneously and maintain patient data privacy.
Participating in the AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry is available at no-cost to hospitals. In addition to being specifically designed to track all hospitalized COVID-19 patients to get real-time data from across the nation, the registry includes the following features:
- access to national and regional benchmarks;
- ability to use key learnings and data for future pandemic preparedness;
- leverage the registry for powerful rapid research; and
- in the near future, the capability for enhanced measures and reports.
As a quality improvement program, investigator-led research opportunities using the aggregate, deidentified dataset were initially provided to investigators at institutions participating in the Registry. These early studies have already provided a robust source of data to inform clinical practice to potentially improve patient outcomes. Late-breaking advances will be presented at AHA’s Scientific Sessions, describing initial results from the registry including racial and ethnic differences in treatment and outcomes and association of body mass index with cardiovascular outcomes in COVID-19 patients.
For more information and to submit a proposal, visit www.heart.org/covidresearch.
For more information on AHA Quality Research, visit www.heart.org/qualityresearch.
To participate in the registry, researchers can complete and submit the information request form, and the AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry Team members will be in touch.
Additional registry resources and the list of participating sites can be found here.
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About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.
For Media Inquiries and AHA/ASA Expert Perspective: 214-706-1173
Karen Springs: karen.springs@heart.org
For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)
heart.org and strokeassociation.org
