The Society for Vascular Ultrasound, the Society for Vascular Surgery and Medstreaming-M2S have developed the Vascular Quality Initiative Vascular Ultrasound Registry. It expands the SVS VQI to combine noninvasive (vascular ultrasound) testing data with vascular treatment and outcomes data, making it possible to analyze the relationships between diagnosis and patient care.
The registry will be piloted with eight to 12 hospitals collecting and analyzing data on carotid artery disease and will include actual ultrasound images.
It is anticipated the registry will promote vascular laboratory standardization and thereby improve patient care. The non-invasive testing is used for medical management decisions, but there is a lack of standardization in reporting results and delivering testing, said James Wilkinson, SVU executive director. "Targeted, yet broad-based research will significantly contribute to standardization efforts."
Fundamental to the new registry is the ability to link technical data and images to the data collected from the SVS VQI’s existing registries. Adding the registry "will further aid the VQI’s mission of improving vascular care by enhancing the data we can make available to our members," said Dr. Jens Eldr-up-Jorgensen, medical director of the SVS Patient Safety Organization. For more information on VQI, visit vsweb.org/VQI.