Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is the AGA Digestive Health Outcomes Registry™?

As part of our commitment to helping gastroenterologists improve patient care, the AGA has partnered with MedAssurant, a national clinical informatics and disease management firm, to develop the AGA Digestive Health Outcomes Registry™, a revolutionary national outcomes-driven registry. It allows you to monitor and improve the care you provide to patients, while also generating data to compare the efficacy of treatments and potentially increase reimbursement.

The AGA Digestive Health Outcomes Registry launched in May 2010 with an initial focus on both guidelines-driven management of IBD and effective strategies for colorectal cancer prevention.

The registry will provide participants with:

Tools that fit into practice workflow and enable efficiencies in the delivery of care.
Access to quality and performance indicators.
National and in-practice comparative benchmarking.
Online and in-person educational and professional development opportunities.
Integration with existing healthcare software systems.
Professional networking and knowledge sharing.

The mission of the registry is to improve patient health outcomes and cost effectiveness of digestive care using scientifically valid methods to collect, analyze and report clinically relevant data, empowering the health-care community to optimize quality of care.

Why participate in the AGA Registry?

A powerful quality improvement tool, the AGA Registry will provide feedback to practices about the care they provide. The feedback, at the provider and practice level, will allow you to benchmark care against aggregate data of other gastroenterologists providing care to similar patients. At the patient level, the data can help practices monitor patient care, track interventions and outcomes.
Data from the registry also can guide evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of your practice. The ability to benchmark and to understand where your practice is doing well, but especially where others appear to be doing better, is a critical component in quality improvement.
The AGA Registry will help you participate in quality and reporting payment incentive programs, such as the CMS Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. In fact, the registry has qualified to submit data to CMS on behalf of their eligible professionals for the 2010 PQRI reporting of the hepatitis C measures group.
Over time, the registry will include an integrated, structured program for practice assessment, intervention and re-assessment, which will help gastroenterologists meet a variety of ABIM Maintenance of Certification and CME requirements. In addition, aggregate data will help AGA identify topics where practice improvement modules are needed.
When taken in aggregate, the data entered by GI practices nationwide will support AGA’s advocacy efforts, making us more effective in Washington on your behalf. Medical societies with patient registries have discovered the tremendous power behind data-driven arguments on the advocacy front.
The AGA Registry is the largest GI registry. It includes years of data collected by MedAssurant, Inc. Using MedAssurant’s MORE² dataset, derived from claims, lab, pathology, pharmacy and imaging data, the AGA Registry is pre-loaded with more than 4 million unique patient records and tens of millions of clinical events. This pre-loaded data provides an immediate opportunity for national benchmarking.

Data

What data would I have access to as a registry participant?

Each gastroenterologist who participates has access to their own performance data. In addition, the registry includes comparative peer groups based on practice characteristics, which you can use to compare your performance and outcomes to similar practices and regions. It is also possible to generate comparative analysis within your practice.

When will I receive my first report? What data will it include?

The registry incorporates a variety of reports and analytical tools. Some of these will be available immediately upon participation in the registry due to the preloaded data from the MedAssurant MORE² dataset . However, more meaningful comparative reports will be available after you enter your own practice data into the registry for approximately two quarters. The availability of data for reports is specific to the report of interest.

Do all patient records have to be captured?

It is not required to enter all patient records or historical data (for care that occurred prior to your participaton in the registry); however, the more patient data collected, the more valuable the registry analytics and reporting for your practice, providing a more robust evaluation of practice-specific trends.

Is it necessary to have an EHR system?

No. While the registry is designed to interface or integrate with electronic medical record (EMR) systems, it is possible to enter data via a Web interface. In an effort to minimize data entry time, AGA has established a sampling methodology for colonoscopy patients. The AGA Digestive Health Outcomes Registry is designed to fit seamlessly into your clinical practice workflow, regardless of whether or not you have an EMR.

If I have an EMR system, how will the registry data be integrated?

EMR providers are being evaluated and approved for AGA Registry Preferred status based on their ability to integrate the registry’s measurement and data abstraction standards into practice.For practices using an AGA Registry Preferred EMR Provider, the data will be directly submitted from the EMR to the registry. gMed is the first provider to be designated as a registry Preferred EMR Provider. As additional EMR providers qualify for preferred status, they will be listed on this Web site. Depending on provider integration, Fees may apply.

How's the AGA Registry different from other registries?

The AGA Registry is different in that it focuses on measuring patient health outcomes on a longitudinal basis, not just documenting care processes and procedures. Another important distinction is that the AGA Registry can help users starting on day one because it is pre-loaded with MedAssurant's MORE² dataset. This pre-loaded data provides immediate opportunity for national benchmarking. Most registries start as empty databases and cannot generate useful information for many months after their launch.

The AGA Registry captures data over time, helping practices to efficiently manage patient care, and demonstrates the appropriate use of resources to payors and purchasers. Participating practices will be able to demonstrate that they provide appropriate care. Examples of health outcomes that can be tracked in the registry include adenoma rates, 30-day complications after colonoscopy, CRC screening and surveillance intervals, steroid use in IBD patients, preventive care provided to IBD patients, and other information that will help physicians understand the impact of their care on health outcomes.

Can the registry data be use for PQRI reporting?

Yes. The AGA Registry has qualified to submit data to CMS on behalf of their eligible professionals for the 2010 PQRI reporting of the hepatitis C measures group. For such registry-based submissions, CMS requires that eligible providers report on all applicable measures within the selected measures group for a minimum sample of 30 unique patients (which may include non-Medicare Part B PFS patients) who meet patient sample criteria for the measures group. The AGA Registry supports this 30 patient option for reporting on the hepatitis C measures group.

Population Health

How can the registry be used to best/better manage the care of my patients?

The AGA Registry will allow you to capture all of your patients with any of the diagnoses or conditions addressed by the registry. Therefore, as you enter your IBD or colorectal cancer screening/surveillance patients into the registry you will be able to generate listings of your patients who are in need of certain interventions. For example, you or your staff can print out a report of those IBD patients needing CRC surveillance so staff can schedule those necessary procedures.

You can also manage the quality of the care you provide by, for example, reviewing your adenoma detection rate by gender, or identifying IBD patients on immunosuppressive therapy that do not have a documented evaluation of their risk of occult infection.

How can the registry inform me about my patient population?

You’ll be able to monitor patient care, track interventions and evaluate outcomes at a population level. Data from the registry can guide evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of your practice. The ability to benchmark and to understand where your practice is doing well, but especially where others appear to be doing better, is a critical component of quality improvement.

The registry allows you to run queries based on the demographics of your patient population for those conditions addressed in the registry. For example you can generate a report based on racial origin to be sure you are offering CRC screening to African Americans beginning at age 45.

How is population management via the registry different than via my EMR?

The AGA Registry is focused on specific conditions and patient data only for those patients meeting the registry criteria. Therefore, the report run time is much quicker. It will not slow down or impact your data collection and documentation systems in the way pulling such reports from your EMR might.

Security and Privacy

What identifiable points will be associated with my data?

Practices that join the registry enter into an agreement with the AGA and MedAssurant, which includes a HIPAA-compliant Business Associate Agreement. Personal Health Information and identifiable provider information will be captured and stored by MedAssurant in accordance with federal and state laws and regulations. MedAssurant will not publish any identifiable provider or practice data without permission.

Who will have access to my data?

MedAssurant collects, stores and reports on your data on your behalf, taking every measure possible to safeguard it. MedAssurant operates in all 50 states, as well as several U.S. territories and protectorates, and is compliant with all local and federal regulations governing these areas, including HIPAA provisions and the recently updated provisions as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health.

How will AGA use the data in the registry?

AGA does not have access to data for individual gastroenterologists, only the aggregate reports. Based on those aggregate data, the AGA will be able to publish benchmarks that can be used to assess your practice patterns and outcomes. AGA Registry data will also allow the AGA to better focus its educational programming and research offerings for members.

Cost of Participation

What are the costs involved?

Annual participation fees are $200 for AGA members and $350 for nonmembers. Typically there are no additional hardware or software costs. There is also an optional $150 per provider/per year fee to participate in the 2010 PQRI reporting for the hepatitis C measures group (available Fall 2010).

If I agree to participate, how long is my commitment?

AGA requires participants to sign one-year agreements.

What is the time commitment for my office staff?

Staff commitment can vary depending on the number of patients that qualify for the registry. You can expect to spend no more than 3-5 minutes per patient for data entry. In addition, practice workflow integration tools will be available to incorporate registry participation directly into your practice.

Enrollment

How do I get started?

Request an enrollment package by completing an enrollment information form or contact an enrollment advisor at info@agaregistry.org or 877-809-9559 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET.

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Do you have to be an AGA member to participate in the AGA Digestive Health Outcomes Registry?

Registry participation is open to all practicing gastroenterologists, regardless of AGA membership status.

As an international GI, can I participate in the AGA Registry?

Participation is currently limited to physicians and practices located in the U.S. and its protectorates.

Are all AGA members in the U.S. expected to participate in the registry?

All members are strongly encouraged to participate, although there is no requirement to do so.

Do all physicians in the practice need to participate in the registry?

It is not required that all physicians participate, but, participation by all physicians in the practice is strongly encouraged to generate data that most accurately reflects practice performance.

Research

How can the registry be used for research?

AGA plans to make aggregate data available for research purposes. Identifiable patient, practitioner and practice-specific data will not be made available. AGA is establishing an oversight group to set AGA Registry research and publications policies and procedures.

What are the costs associated with using the registry data for research studies?

Cost associated with the secondary use of data are relative to the complexity of the data request.

Future Registries

Will there be additional data registries created by the AGA?

Once the initial registry is fully implemented possible future registry topics include:

Upper endoscopy/GERD/Barrett’s esophagus/eosinophilic esophagitis – medical & endoscopic management.
Obesity — medical and endoscopic management.
Viral hepatitis.
Irritable bowel syndrome.
Ulcer disease/dyspepsia/H. pylori.
Advanced endoscopy procedures.
Nutrition/enteral feeding/total parenteral nutrition.
GI motility.

How will the topics for new registries be decided?

Registry topics are selected using a panel of AGA members and thought leaders generally representative of GI practice and priorities. Using a consensus-based and data-driven process, borrowed from the wideband Delphi process, members rank priorities for the registry, as well as how individual topics score within these priorities, and compare scores. Using these scores as a reference, the panel and AGA leadership determine the topic(s) that are believed to generate the most immediate positive impact and member value.

How do I submit suggestions related to the registry and recommendations for new topics?

Contact Debbie Robin, MSN, RN, CHCQM, AGA Senior Director for Quality, at drobin@gastro.org.

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