To indicate your CR program’s interest in the CCRR Registry

and for further information,please contact:

Special Projects Coordinator - Kristal Kiland

E-mail: kkiland@cacr.ca

The underlying vision of the Canadian Cardiac Rehab Registry by CACR is the optimization of the health of patients with cardiovascular disease by uptake and adherence to evidence-based guidelines through the development of a national web-based surveillance system. Short-term goals are focused on patient care and improving treatment and outcomes through interactive reporting.  Long-term goals include tracking and real-time management of patients across disciplines and geographic regions, improving adherence to CR service benchmarks (such as waitlist management), and collaboration with other Registries such as Stroke and Heart Failure Networks.

The uniqueness of the Cardiac Rehab Registry is its ability to identify participants within cardiac rehab programs who are not meeting risk factor targets and by cross-referencing to CACR’s 3rd Edition Guidelines (being released in October ’09), a CR program will be able to affect an individual’s treatment while they are in a cardiac rehab program.  

The CCRR will provide aggregate data/information to CR programs even for those who may not currently have a clinical management system. The Cardiac Rehab Registry has been built to accept data from a variety of sources (listed below) that will ensure that there is no duplication of effort at the program level and a minimum level of useable information/reports are provided on a regular basis.

There are an estimated 230 cardiac rehabilitation programs across Canada that could potentially participate in CACR’s CCRR Registry.  These programs provide services to more than 50,000 new patients annually.

Three methods of participation will be supported equally:

1. Direct data entry: all identifying information remains in the program on the local server. 
• The basic direct entry method allows for a guaranteed minimal level of reports on entered data with the ability to manually identify those patients not meeting risk factor targets.
• An enhanced level of direct entry using a CACR supported tool that will easily identify those patients not meeting risk factor targets.
  
  
2. Uploading of data from a pre-existing clinical management system: hospital or program based and will require IT support from the individual program.
   
   
3. Uploading of data from a CACR-certified clinical management system: certification process to start at conclusion of the Pilot Project.

The CCRR Registry is currently in the pilot phase which includes 6-8 CR programs and is moving into the regional roll out phase. Interim results of the pilot were presented at the CACR Annual Meeting and Symposium in October 2009 in Edmonton.

A scaled roll-out to an additional 10-15 CR programs (regional roll out) is underway which will allow for the validation of data elements and definitions, solution of system bugs, access issues, support requirements and more. Once the regional roll out has been successfully completed, the CACR will scale up the Cardiac Rehab Registry release to serve all CR programs in Canada.  The regional and national roll-outs are expected to occur in 2010 - 2011.

The ability to achieve the goals referred to above is dependent on the quality of the data collected. Therefore, it is important that each participating CR program:

• Collect required data on all consenting CR patients (including those repeating the program)
• Enter or upload data to the CCRR Registry on a regular basis
• Respond to requests for data completion and corrections in a timely manner

 In return, the CACR will provide the following:

• Complimentary access to the web-based CCRR Registry Application for entry or uploading
• A detailed definition manual for accurate data collection
• Support in completing all necessary documentation to confirm participation (e.g. information required for privacy office, risk assessment team, or research ethics board).
• Site-specific web-based activity and performance reports
• Benchmarking reports of key indicators as identified by the CACR Registry Committee. CACR will determine acceptable levels of data completeness and accuracy that are required for inclusion of each program in the benchmarking reports.