WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov 12, 2021)— The National Minority Quality Forum’s (NMQF’s) Center for Sustainable Health Care Quality and Equity (SHC), in partnership with AXDEV Global, have been working together on an intervention designed to improve stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AFib) through screening, education, and quality improvement. Today, the project partners released a major component of the project consisting of a toolkit of educational resources for healthcare providers who care for patients at-risk of AFib.
“Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common heart arrhythmia and a leading cause of stroke. While medications can prevent stroke in people with AF, barriers persist including lack of diagnosis, treatment nonadherence, and racial and ethnic disparities,” Dr. Laura Lee Hall, SHC’s President, said.
SHC’s AF toolkit was developed to assist primary care teams in understanding their patients’ risk and promoting evidence-based, patient-centered, equitable treatment with anticoagulants using quality improvement strategies.
“While AF is more common among white populations, people of color with AF are much less likely to receive optimal, evidence-based treatment, with poorer outcomes, including death,” Dr. Hall said. “A meta-analysis of nearly 60 studies has shown that people of color were less likely to receive anticoagulation for stroke prevention or rhythm control modalities.”
Studies have shown that these disparities cannot be explained away by less insurance coverage or other social determinants of health. That’s why SHC has developed a number of resources and projects to translate the recommendations into action, including an online toolkit for practices and communities to use in implementing AF strategies with ongoing support.
“We thank their collaborative partners in the design and development of this program, especially Dr. Andrea Russo and her team at Cooper University Health Care, the Heart Rhythm Society, and the American Heart Association. Special acknowledgment to Dr. Gregory Hood,” Dr. Hall said.
This activity is funded by an Independent Medical Education grant from the Bristol Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance.
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About National Minority Quality Forum
The National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. The mission of NMQF is to reduce patient risk by assuring optimal care for all. NMQF’s vision is an American health services research, delivery and financing system whose operating principle is to reduce patient risk for amenable morbidity and mortality while improving quality of life. NMQF’s capabilities include federal and state policy analysis and advocacy; issue-specific alliance development; community-based provider quality improvement initiatives, and data analytics.