Lessons from the IMPROVE HF registry

You can look at IMPROVE HF as the outpatient version of OPTIMIZE. This Medscape CME activity summarizes information from the database, the quality improvement tools used to increase guideline adherence and the results of the quality improvement efforts.


Not surprisingly at baseline only 20 some odd percent of patients were completely guideline adherent. After intervention it was just over 40%. And these were cardiology practices. For single measures, of course, the percentages were higher.


The CME presentation makes unfortunate use of the term performance. This was not really a performance initiative. It went far beyond that to address total guideline adherence.


The IMPROVE HF website has some useful resources and guideline adherence tools.