Piloting the NPF data-driven quality improvement initiative.

OBJECTIVE: To pilot a data-driven quality care program in National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) Centers of Excellence.
BACKGROUND: Evidence from comparative effectiveness research (CER) can be used to guide decisions regarding health care and to improve quality and efficiency of care. We propose to develop the infrastructure required to conduct CER across an extensive network of NPF Centers of Excellence.
METHODS: We present the staged planning for a pilot study which will demonstrate the development and implementation of the infrastructure that will be needed for a large standardized patient-centered, clinical practice database for PD. This database will support CER and drive quality improvement studies.
RESULTS: We describe the infrastructure for the ongoing pilot feasibility testing in a subset of six NPF Centers of Excellence, and we discuss the impact that the data (available in 2010) could have in guiding PD management.
CONCLUSION: This preliminary experience will facilitate the longitudinal tracking of therapies and of outcomes in PD clinical practice. Further, we are hopeful that the information will provide insight into PD that will extend beyond the clinical trials population (the population included in most available PD databases). This prospective standardized real-world multi-center clinical practice database will aim to identify positive health outcomes associated with treatment approaches, and to identify variations in clinical outcomes that may suggest improvements in best clinical practice patterns.