Registry Benefits

Why participate in the ImageGuideEcho™ Registry?

The ImageGuideEcho Registry is the nation’s first echo-specific clinical data registry. Within the Registry, your institution will have the analytical tools to track quality improvement, compare your performance against national benchmarks, connect to outcomes data, and examine data in the Registry to conduct innovative research. Having all echo data in one seamless interface in cooperation with our registry vendor ARMUS allows for new insights to be generated which allows easy recognition of quality gaps and facilitates targeted quality improvement. If your institution uses ARMUS for other registries, you will be able to generate insights utilizing data across those registries and include echo data using the ImageGuideEcho Registry.

What kind of quality and analytical feedback does the ImageGuideEcho Registry provide?

The ImageGuideEcho Registry provides automatically calculated measures that allow for quality-of-care examination for TTE, Stress Echo and Multi-Modality imaging through our partnership with the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC). View our current list of performance measures here.

ImageGuideEcho also offers newly modernized data visualizations for benchmarking quality-of-care data against national aggregates. Examine quality of care performance at the individual, institutional, and national level by
using our interactive dashboard.

ImageGuideEcho also contains the capability to connect to registries already within the ARMUS platform at the individual patient level. Tracking the patient throughout the continuum of care creates unique opportunities to understand and leverage the value of cardiovascular imaging for the benefit of patient care. Furthermore, connections to outcomes data with other registries and also with national sources of outcomes information have clear impacts for increasing opportunities for echocardiography research by allowing for direct connections between quality imaging studies and improved patient outcomes.

Seamless fulfillment of Intersocietal Accreditation Commission – Echocardiography (IAC) standards in TTE and Stress Echo is another advantage of ImageGuideEcho. The Registry has created exportable analytics from TTE and stress echo report information tailored to the IAC standards and accepted by IAC for fulfillment of IAC report completeness and timeliness quality improvement requirements, with more complete and effortless integration on the horizon.

How can I access and use my institutional data?

As an ImageGuideEcho Registry Participant, your institution retains control of and access to all submitted data. Specifically, the individual that your institution assigns to be a Registry Manager will have access to ARMUS’ HYRBID platform where they can customize registry access permissions for individuals at your institution, monitor quality of care, compare internal and external performance, and utilize the data for quality improvement and research purposes. The Site Manager can provide access permissions according to your institution’s needs for other purposes as well.

Data Collection

How does the automatic data submission work?

Through ASE’s partnership with ARMUS, data can be extracted directly from your institution’s echocardiography reporting platform. The first step in the process is for ImageGuideEcho to understand your institution’s technical environment, achieved when you fill out two short questionnaires. This will enable us to utilize your institution’s resources as efficiently as possible.

• ASE IT Systems Integration Questionnaire – This should be filled out by the institution’s primary IT contact.
• ASE Lab Director Systems Integration Questionnaire – This should be filled out by the institution’s echo lab director.

Following the completion of these forms, we will work with your institution to arrange sample data file transfers in the format most useful to you. Once the sample files and mappings are finalized, an export will be scheduled with your institution for regular submission to the Registry. Of note, this process might not necessitate the creation of new interfaces and may be done using, low-cost, low-maintenance, routinely scheduled secure file transfers.

It is our intent for this process be as painless as possible for your institution. Once set up, ideally the data will be automatically sent to ImageGuideEcho on a regular basis, eliminating the need for ongoing maintenance. We look forward to working with you and your IT department in this effort.

What types of data submission options are available?

There are three types of data submission options:

Certified Software Reporting Vendors – This process utilizes a certified PACS system or CVIS system to submit data directly to the Registry. If you are a software vendor interested in becoming a Certified Software Reporting Vendor, please click here.

Systems Integration – This process works directly with your institution’s IT department to map the data elements from your institution to the Registry’s data dictionary. Once set up, this process will continue automatic submission without ongoing manual input or workflow modification.

Manual Data Entry – For labs interested in manually entering report information, ImageGuideEcho offers a manual interface for data submission. The data collection tool is available upon logging in to the Registry.

For help determining which of these options will work best for you institution, please email Info@ImageGuideEcho.org. We will work to customize the best plan for your facility.

What if I am a small practice, can I still do manual data entry?

Yes, your practice can use the manual data collection tool available in ARMUS’ HYBRID Platform for manual data entry. Many labs have successfully used this process over the past three years.

What if I have free text data, can I submit my data using the automatic data submission?

If your institution collects free text data, we recommend that the echo lab director complete the ASE Lab Director Systems Integration Questionnaire to better understand the data structure at your institution and how it can work within the Registry.

Enrollment

Who should be involved in the automatic data submission setup at my institution?

We highly recommend involving the institution’s IT Department, Echo Lab Director, and PACS/echo reporting system vendor primary contact to efficiently and successfully complete the automatic data submission process. If your institution has a quality group that manages other registries, we recommend involving them to leverage their registry participation expertise.

Is there a cost to participate in the ImageGuideEcho Registry?

Participation in the ImageGuideEcho Registry is FREE for ASE members. If your institution wishes to pursue membership for physician readers, please click here for our most up to date membership pricing information.

We also offer an institutional pricing model for groups who wish to pursue enrollment outside of obtaining ASE membership. Click here for the pricing model.

What does the dashboard look like?

Click here to see a brief dashboard demonstration.

Can I have multiple locations participating from one larger institution?
Yes, ARMUS’ HYBRID platform gives an institution the ability to add multiple locations in one portal using the interactive dashboard.

Next Steps

Do you have plans to expand the ImageGuideEcho Registry internationally?

Yes, we do have plans to expand the ImageGuideEcho Registry internationally. As of now, the Registry operates solely in the United States. If you are an international institution interested in joining the Registry, please reach out to us and let us know by emailing Info@ImageGuideEcho.org.

What if I’m ready to join? What are my next steps?
Email us directly at Info@ImageGuideEcho.org to get in touch with an ASE representative.

We look forward to working with you!