SVS VQI Celebrates 10 Years of Initiatives to Improve Quality of Vascular Health and Best Practices

August 18, 2021—The Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving vascular quality within hospitals and outpatient facilities, announced the 10th anniversary of its inception on this date in 2011.

The SVS VQI is governed by the SVS Patient Safety Organization (SVS PSO), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society for Vascular Surgery, which provides oversight of data sharing arrangements, key outcome and quality measure analyses, and dissemination of information to participating providers, the society notes.

"When we launched the VQI, there were few organizations that brought together the high level of clinical expertise, analytics, and quality improvement focus that was essential in raising the bar for vascular care in the United States," commented Jens Eldrup-Jorgensen, MD, medical director of the SVS PSO, in the announcement. "Moving forward, we will continue our efforts to strengthen analytics, reporting, and data integration to relieve the burden of data entry, provide easier access to data for quality improvement, and make data even more valuable for our members."

According to announcement, the VQI is composed of vascular surgeons, cardiologists, radiologists, and other specialists who perform vascular procedures collected in the VQI Registries. Participating centers are divided into 18 regional quality groups that meet biannually to discuss initiatives for improving quality of vascular care.

In addition to improving quality within hospitals and outpatient facilities, the VQI supports efforts to reduce costs and resource utilization as well as promote efforts towards vascular quality research.

The VQI says that in 2022, its leaders plan to expand the organization’s educational mission, through the implementation of new programs that connect the next generation of vascular professionals with the tools and data they need to enhance clinical quality and patient outcomes.

As outlined in the announcement, key achievements in establishing SVS VQI as a leading resource for vascular quality care and outcomes include:

• Growth in participation to more than 800 hospitals and ambulatory facilities overseeing more than 840,000 procedures for individuals with vascular conditions
• Expansion of provider partners, with more than 4,500 physicians, including vascular surgeons, cardiologists, radiologists, and others, entering procedures into 14 different vascular registries
• Creation of 18 Regional Quality Groups that meet on a semi-annual basis to review their data and discuss quality improvement projects
• Establishment of an SVS VQI Annual Meeting, which celebrates its 5-year anniversary in 2021
• Collaboration with the FDA and manufacturers to better assess safety and efficacy of vascular devices
• Expansion of clinical trials within the registry to facilitate a more efficient and cost-effective path for device analysis and reporting
• Creation of a new quality improvement training program for residents
• Partnering with the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, Society for Vascular Medicine, American Venous Forum, Society for Vascular Ultrasound, and Vascular Access Society of America to better understand and improve the care of vascular patients
• Increased utilization of the Fivos Pathways clinical data performance platform to generate the real-time benchmarked reports of major clinical outcomes and process measures, as well as longitudinal tracking of center performance compared with regional and national standards. The new Fivos Health brand was announced by Medstreaming and M2S announced on August 11. Fivos provides comprehensive data solutions for specialty providers, medical registries, and device manufacturers.