American College of Physicians launches study of cloud-based quality improvement program on diabetes and cardiovascular disease care

PHILADELPHIA, February 14, 2013 -- The American College of Physicians (ACP) in collaboration with CECity, developer of MedConcert®, a social cloud-based performance improvement platform, will pilot and test the impact of a technology-based quality improvement program on physician participation, value to practices, rapid-cycle learning, and patient outcomes.

The one-year pilot program, "Improving the Quality of Diabetes Care," will tailor MedConcert with diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention content. More than 11 percent of adults in the United States - an estimated 26 million people - have diabetes, which is associated with multiple complications and co-morbid conditions, including cardiovascular disease.

"This initiative will provide important data to help us determine the feasibility of recruiting physician offices to participate in an integrated, technology-based quality improvement program and assess facilitators and barriers," said Michael S. Barr, MD, MBA, FACP, who leads ACP's Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality division. "The data also will enable us to assess the ease of adopting this type of technology into the workflows of physician practices and whether it correlates with improved care processes, patient satisfaction, and patient outcomes."

Up to 50 internal medicine practices in three states in the pilot will have access to the following web-based tools:

  • The ACP diabetes registry based on the 2013 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Diabetes Measure Group and related data elements.
  • Patient surveys to provide important feedback on system and provider performance, including information about coordination of care and communication.
  • ACP's Medical Home Builder 2.0, an online community providing practice teams with a self-assessment tool to improve patient care, streamline fundamental business operations, and identify and implement key features of the patient-centered medical home.
  • Providers eligible for CMS PQRS incentives will have the option to submit their report through PQRIwizard®, an easy-to-use online tool for physician quality reporting.

Physicians may access MedConcert's secure social networks to engage in peer-to-peer clinical communities that enable patient coordination of care and real-time communications for sharing best practices. MedConcert also houses a library of diabetes and CVD resources and educational materials, including patient education tools, linked to specific gaps in performance identified in the registry data, which are also available to participants.

A report on the results of the pilot quality improvement program is expected by the end of the year. The Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health will conduct the program evaluation.

About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 133,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter and Facebook.

About CECity
Founded in 1997, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based CECity is the health care industry's leading software as a service (SaaS) provider of cloud-based applications and distribution networks for Performance Improvement and Lifelong Learning. Health care professionals and organizations, including quality organizations, health plans, hospitals, pharmacy chains, certifying boards, licensing boards, publishers, professional societies, academic medical centers and educational providers, count on CECity to power their solutions for continuous performance improvement, registries, professional development, patient safety and adherence, population health informatics and quality reporting in support of health care and payment reform.

MedConcert, powered by CECity, represents the health care industry's first multi-tenant cloud-based platform that is designed to connect stakeholders in a meaningful way to bridge the "House of Medicine" and the "Practice of Medicine" to drive continuous performance improvement, coordination of care, and lifelong learning. MedConcert is a real world implementation of the Learning Health System, which has been proposed by CMS, IOM and others as a critical component of driving quality and improving patient care.