Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for close to 17 percent of total healthcare spending – or nearly $300 billion in 2010 alone. Preventing and treating this disease early can lead to both improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare spending. Estimates show that we have the potential to save $190 billion over 10 years through cardiac disease prevention. Such early intervention can also help reduce the use of costly services further down the road, such as cardiac imaging or surgical procedures.
Therefore, the National Quality Strategy has made promoting the most effective prevention, treatment, and intervention practices for the leading causes of mortality, starting with cardiovascular disease a national priority, proposing three goals for improvement:
- Promote cardiovascular health through community interventions that result in improvement of social, economic, and environmental factors.
- Promote cardiovascular health through interventions that result in adoption of the most important healthy lifestyle behaviors across the lifespan.
- Promote cardiovascular health through receipt of effective clinical preventive services across the lifespan in clinical and community settings.
Related NQF Work
- NEW! Cardiovascular Measures 2014
This project is now beginning its second phase of reviewing measures for endorsement. For Phase 2, NQF will seek to identify and endorse new measures that can be used to assess cardiovascular conditions at any level of analysis or setting of care, and review endorsed measures scheduled for maintenance.
- NEW! Cardiovascular Measures 2015
This project is a continuation third phase of the Cardiovascular Endorsement project, launched in 2013. Phase 3 will seek to identify and endorse new measures that can be used to assess cardiovascular conditions at any level of analysis or setting of care, and review endorsed measures scheduled for maintenance.
- Cardiovascular Measures
NQF will review performance measures focused on cardiovascular conditions by soliciting new measures on any cardiovascular condition or treatment at any level of analysis or setting of care, and reviewing endorsed measures scheduled for maintenance.
- Cost and Resource Use Measures
Phase two of this project focuses on cardiovascular condition specific measures and phase three will focus on pulmonary condition-specific measures.
- Pulmonary Measures
This project evaluated NQF-endorsed® pulmonary and critical care measures and a considered new measures, in order to ensure the currency of NQF’s portfolio of voluntary consensus standards.
July 2012 Press Release | January 2013 Press Release | Endorsement Summary
- Cardiovascular Measures (2010)
In January 2012, NQF endorsed 29 cardiovascular care quality measures, addressing a wide range of cardiovascular issues including: hypertension, coronary artery disease, acute myocardial infarction, percutaneous coronary intervention, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure, as well as other treatments, diagnostic studies, interventions, or procedures associated with these conditions.
Press Release | Endorsement Summary
- MAP Families of Measures: Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes Task Force
This task force will develop a "family" of aligned measures that includes available measures and measure gaps that span programs, care settings, and levels of analysis for two high-impact conditions – cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This family of measures will address cost of care as related to these conditions.
