A DCRI-led pragmatic clinical trial is focusing on improving quality initiatives so that patients with heart failure receive better care and spend less time in the hospital.
CONNECT-HF, led by the DCRI’s Adam DeVore, MD, MHS, (pictured left) focuses on encouraging patients to connect with their outpatient doctors to optimize their care. The study will work with 161 sites to enroll high-risk patients and follow them for 12 months.
There are two major quality improvement initiatives delivered by CONNECT-HF. One is the return of feedback, ensuring that each site has data on its performance and progress associated with heart failure care and outcomes. This is paired with mentorship and coaching from the study team so that each site can improve adherence to evidence based therapies available for patients with heart failure. The study team will leverage existing infrastructure by partnering with hospitals that are already engaged and making an effort to improve patient care.
CONNECT-HF will measure its progress by tracking time to first readmission to the hospital or death within the 12-month follow-up period after hospital discharge. The study team has also developed a composite score that each patient will receive based on adherence to quality metrics, which includes taking medication, as well as other factors like cardiac rehabilitation and exercise.
“Anything that improves implementation of evidence-based therapies, and in turn patient care, will include a lot of different levers,” DeVore said. “Each site has the freedom to decide how to improve patient outcomes, but when their work is bolstered by the support of data and coaching provided by CONNECT-HF, I am confident we will see some real progress and keep more patients out of the hospital for longer.”
This article originally appeared in the DCRI’s 2018-2019 Annual Report. View more articles from this publication.