KEY SUPPORTERS RENEW COMMITMENT TO RECOGNIZE
EXCELLENCE IN CARDIAC AND STROKE CARE
More than 400 doctors have met Heart/Stroke Recognition Program criteria
WASHINGTON—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) today announced that three sponsors of the NCQA/American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) Heart/Stroke Recognition Program (HSRP) renewed their support of the popular program and a new sponsor will support the program in 2007. Founding sponsors Pfizer Inc and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, as well as patron sponsor Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, will be joined this year by champion sponsor Daiichi Sankyo, Inc./Forest Laboratories, Inc. to collaborate with NCQA to underwrite cardiac education efforts in 2007. Their support will enhance efforts to provide outreach services to physicians and physician groups to educate them about the program.
The HSRP was developed by NCQA and the AHA/ASA to help physicians use evidence-based clinical measures and provide a high level of care to their patients with cardiovascular disease—a condition that affects more than 70 million Americans and costs nearly $400 billion annually to treat.
“Programs that highlight physicians who deliver excellent care based on objective clinical criteria—such as the HSRP—are crucial to helping consumers make smart choices about their care,” said NCQA President Margaret E. O’Kane. “There are many physicians practicing today who deliver top-notch care, but don’t know about the program. This support will help spread the word; hopefully, more doctors will come forward to be recognized.”
To earn recognition, a physician or physician groups must collect and submit data related to the treatment of people with cardiovascular disease, such as the percentage of patients whose blood pressure and cholesterol are controlled to recommended levels. Physicians are also measured on the extent to which they recommend or prescribe antithrombotics to their patients with cardiovascular disease and whether they advise smokers to quit. Those that meet or exceed national performance thresholds are recognized on a dedicated Web page. Nearly 400 physicians have been recognized to date.
For more information on the HSRP, visit NCQA’s Web site. A searchable database of Recognized physicians is available at http://www.healthchoices.org/.
NCQA is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. NCQA accredits and certifies a wide range of health care organizations and recognizes physicians in key clinical areas. NCQA’s Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is the most widely used performance measurement tool in health care. NCQA is committed to providing health care quality information through the Web, media and data licensing agreements in order to help consumers, employers and others make more informed health care choices. For more information, visit http://www.ncqa.org/.
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