Welcome to this learning activity titled an AFib Ablation Registry Overview. After participating in this learning activity, the learner will be able to define the purpose of the AFib Ablation Registry and effects of atrial fibrillation, describe the age requirement for inclusion into the registry, and identify the relevance of the AFib Ablation Registry. The AFib Registry is designed to assess the prevalence, demographics, management, and outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous catheter ablation procedures to treat atrial fibrillation. Patient-level data is submitted by participating hospitals on a quarterly basis to the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR. The primary aims of the AFib Ablation Registry are to optimize the outcomes and management of patients through the implementation of evidence-based guideline recommendations in clinical practice, facilitate efforts to improve the quality and safety for patients undergoing percutaneous catheter ablation procedures, investigate novel quality improvement methods, and provide risk-adjusted assessment of patients for comparison with nationwide NCDR data. The secondary purpose of the AFib Ablation Registry is to serve as a rich source of clinical data to support assessments of short- and long-term safety, comparative and cost-effectiveness research, and as a scalable data infrastructure for post-market studies. Atrial fibrillation is a growing health concern of population health. Greater than 5.1 million people in the United States are affected by AFib. In 2019, AFib was mentioned on 183,321 death certificates and was the underlying cause of death in 26,535 of those deaths. It is anticipated that the reported volume of AFib will increase by three times by the year 2050. Greater than 750,000 hospitalizations occur each year due to AFib, with over 130,000 deaths per year. The medical costs for patients with AFib in the U.S. every year are about $8,705 higher for people who have AFib than those who don't have the dysrhythmia. The likelihood that an asymptomatic AFib patient has or will have a stroke is 14.7% compared with 6% of symptomatic patients. These numbers are staggering, and the AFib Registry is a tool to monitor evidence-based treatment, safety, and long-term outcomes. The inclusion population for the AFib Ablation Registry includes anyone 18 years of age or older who has had an attempted percutaneous catheter-based AFib ablation procedure. If the AFib ablation procedure is performed in combination with another type of ablation procedure, the patient should still be included with the registry. The AFib Ablation Registry is an evidence-based data collection tool with the primary objective of improving quality of life. The long-term objective of the AFib Ablation Procedure is to decrease and or eliminate medication burden and decrease the risk of bleeding by eliminating the need for blood thinners. Additional benefits and objectives of the procedure include decreasing patient fatigue, lowering the risk of stroke and heart failure, and increasing tolerance of exercise and daily activities of living. As a nationally recognized surveillance tool, the AFib Ablation Registry is well-positioned within the healthcare industry to support ongoing quality improvement efforts for patients having these procedures. The AFib Ablation Registry provides hospital feedback on their data in comparison to the registry benchmark on a weekly basis through an interactive dashboard and quarterly through published outcomes reports. The data can support the hospital's internal process and quality improvement efforts and provides timely insights into the adherence and performance measures, as well as guideline care. The AFib Ablation Registry has become a tool for outside stakeholders, healthcare systems, states and payers who use it to assess the incidents and trends of AFib Ablation Procedures and the quality of care provided by providers and the centers engaged in these procedures. It supports numerous research initiatives, informs clinical practice and guideline development, and additionally, registry data can be used to support ACC accreditation services for EP accreditation. The AFib Ablation Registry is governed by a 7-10 member steering committee with a chair and an ex-officio member of the NCDR Oversight Committee. Committee members have expertise in clinical practice, financial management, quality measurement, and either improvement or health system strategy and innovation. The steering committee provides strategic oversight and direction. They also provide guidance for program activities and insights to identify research opportunities for quality improvement. Recommendations are provided to the NCDR Oversight Committee, which helps them inform this committee's decisions. Thank you for participating in this learning activity titled an AFib Registry Overview. Now that you've completed this learning activity, you should be able to define the purpose of the AFib Ablation Registry and effects of atrial fibrillation, describe the age requirement for inclusion into the registry, and identify the relevance of the AFib Ablation Registry.

AFib Ablation Registry

prevalence of AFib

percutaneous catheter ablation procedures

American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR

patient outcomes

data collection tool

prevalence

quality improvement