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AAO launches ophthalmology’s first clinical data registry
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NEW ORLEANS — The American Academy of Ophthalmology announced the launch of the specialty’s first clinical data registry.
The Intelligent Research in Sight (IRIS) Registry is designed to let ophthalmologists collect information and use it to improve the quality of care and outcomes and meet regulatory requirements. A team of experts discussed the registry at an AAO news conference during the annual meeting here.
The IRIS Registry is scheduled for full implementation in April 2014, Michael F. Chiang, MD, chairman of the AAO’s Medical Information Technology Committee, said.
“This is an [opportune] time to initiate a registry,” William L. Rich III, MD, AAO medical director of health policy and chairman of the Registry Measure Development Workgroup, said. “The registry is basically a quality improvement activity to get improved quality, get better outcomes and satisfy the regulatory needs of the profession. ... This is really a game-changer.”
The IRIS Registry is modeled on a registry operated by the American College of Cardiology (ACC), Rich said.
David May , MD, PhD, president of the Texas chapter of the ACC, said the ACC registry has yielded good results in terms of data collection, analysis and regulatory compliance.
“IRIS is a next-generation registry,” May said.
Currently, the IRIS Registry is being piloted in 35 states among 685 eye care providers with a total of 370,000 patients, Chiang said. The AAO expects the registry to handle data on more than 18 million patients by 2016.
The registry is designed to interface with any electronic medical record or electronic health record system, he said. Built-in data mapping programs will help practices transfer data to the registry.
The IRIS Registry is expected to help practices participate in Medicare’s Physician Quality Reporting System, which involves incentive payments for reporting care quality information and penalties for failure to report, Rich said.
The registry will also help ophthalmic subspecialty societies coordinate with the AAO in analyzing data and conducting randomized clinical trials, Chiang said.