Small and medium-sized practices in Oregon are invited to participate

June 1, 2015

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States, accounting for 1 in 3 deaths. On May 26, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality awarded $112 million to seven regional cooperatives to work with about 5,000 primary care professionals in 12 states to improve the heart health of their nearly 8 million patients.

Called EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care, the initiative is designed to help primary care practices in both urban and rural communities use the latest evidence to  deliver the ABCS of cardiovascular prevention into their patients’ care -Aspirin use by high risk individuals, Blood pressure control, Cholesterol management, and Smoking cessation.  EvidenceNow is aligned with the Million Hearts® national initiative, whose goal is to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017 through improving the ABCS cardiovascular prevention measures.

The Northwest regional cooperative ─ called Healthy Hearts Northwest (H2N) ─ received a $13.7 million grant to implement EvidenceNOW and is led by the MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation at Group Health Research Institute in partnership with  Qualis Health, the Institute of Translational Health Sciences and OHSU’s Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network (ORPRN).

In Oregon, ORPRN will lead the work and will invite 130 small to medium-sized practices in rural and non-rural settings throughout the state to participate. By working in partnership with these practices, EvidenceNow will reach up to 650,000 Oregonians.

“This project is about filling a quality health care gap by developing high performing quality improvement infrastructures for small to medium-sized practices in Oregon,” said Lyle (LJ) Fagnan, M.D. ’71, ORPRN director and professor of family medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. “This is an exceptional opportunity to improve the cardiovascular health of Oregonians.”

ORPRN is uniquely suited to lead the state-wide effort. The purpose of the network is to work with diverse primary care practices to improve processes of care, understand practice culture, evaluate improvement efforts and enable practice transformation. ORPRN includes 161 clinicians in 49 primary care practices across Oregon, providing care for over 245,000 patients and is overseen by an 11-member clinician Steering Committee. The network employs regional Practice Enhancement Research Coordinators to conduct research and support member clinics.

Practices participating in Healthy Hearts Northwest will receive at least 15 months of practice support, technical assistance for health information technology, coaching in quality improvement, and chances to participate in workshops to build quality improvement competencies.

In Oregon, David Dorr, M.D. R ’02, vice chair and professor of medical informatics & clinical epidemiology in the OHSU School of Medicine, and his Care Management Plus team will provide expertise regarding the use of health information technology in quality improvement and practice change. Care Management Plus is a program that lowers costs and improves health outcomes by harnessing electronic health records and other technology as part of a team-based, primary care management model.

Is your practice interested in participating?

Learn more in this flyer. Contact Dr. Fagnan for further information.

Additional reading

OHSU Family Medicine to lead independent external evaluation of overall EvidenceNow Initiative

Pictured above: Dr. LJ Fagnan; barn near Enterprise Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives