American Heart Association Develops First CVD-Focused Registry

(UNDATED) – As physicians, scientists and researchers worldwide struggle to understand the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the American Heart Association is developing a novel registry to aggregate data and aid research on the disease, treatment protocols and risk factors tied to adverse cardiovascular outcomes.

COVID-19 is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, with strong evidence for adverse cardiovascular outcomes.[1],[2] Moreover, patients with existing cardiovascular disease or CVD risk factors may be at higher risk for serious complications from COVID-19, including death.

The Association’s new, free COVID-19 CVD registry powered by its Get With The Guidelines® (GWTG) hospital quality improvement program, will be available to more than 2,400 hospitals currently participating in a GWTG module starting in May. In addition, aggregate data will be available to researchers through the Association’s Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine.

”Having sufficient data is the first step to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular health,“ said John Warner, M.D., FAHA, chair of the quality oversight committee and past volunteer president of the American Heart Association and executive vice president for Health System Affairs at the University of Texas Southwestern Health System in Dallas, Texas. “As a trusted resource for data and research, with an entry point in more than 2,400 U.S. hospitals, the American Heart Association is uniquely positioned to gather data quickly and accurately.” 

Several studies have reported COVID-19 patients presenting with or developing heart failure, cardiogenic shock, stroke and lethal arrhythmias secondary to the disease. [3][4] However, these studies have consistently been limited by the lack of a structured collection of data raising concerns about indication bias for most laboratory testing. Further, several of these studies are single-center descriptive assessments, limiting their generalizability.

In response, the American Heart Association is creating the multicenter registry to collect biomarkers, clinical data and cardiovascular outcomes in COVID-19 patients. The registry will focus on granular data collection from centers that routinely test biomarkers in COVID-19 patients.

Volunteer steering committee members for the COVID-19 CVD Registry powered by Get With The Guidelines include:

  • Co-chair Sandeep R. Das, MD, MPH, MBA, FACC, FAHA, Director for Quality and Value, Cardiology Division, UT Southwestern Medical Center
  • Co-chair James de Lemos, MD, Professor of Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
  • Steven Bradley, MD, MPH, Cardiologist, Minneapolis Heart Institute
  • Mitchell Elkind, MD, MS, FAAN, FAHA, Professor of Neurology and Epidemiology, Head, Division of Neurology Clinical Outcomes Research and Population Sciences (NeuroCORPS), Columbia University
  • David Morrow, MD, MPH, Director, Samuel A. Levine Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, Section Head, Critical Care Cardiology, Professor of Medicine | Harvard Medical School
  • Fatima Rodriguez, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, Assistant Professor, Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
  • Tracy Wang, MD, MHS, MS, Director, Health Services and Outcomes Research
    Director, DCRI Education, Associate Professor of Medicine Cardiology

To participate in the registry, contact qualityresearch@heart.org.

Additional resources and guidance for health care professionals on COVID-19 can be found here.

Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) is a hospital-based quality improvement program from the American Heart Association with tools and resources to increase adherence to the latest research-based guidelines.  The premise of the GWTG programs is when medical professionals apply the most up-to-date evidence-based treatment guidelines, patient outcomes improved.