Heart Health NOW

Purpose: The Heart Health NOW Advancing Heart Health in NC Primary Care (“Project”) is project of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to accelerate the dissemination and implementation of patient-centered outcomes research findings into primary care for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The Project will implement interventions aimed at helping small and medium-sized primary care practices build their capacity to consistently use evidence-based strategies for CVD prevention with at-risk patients and test the effectiveness of practice facilitation as a quality improvement strategy to help primary care practices adopt best practices.

Participant’s Roles and Responsibilities: To the extent Participant and Participant’s Participating Entities listed on Exhibit D of this Agreement have elected to contract with UNC-Chapel Hill to participate in the project titled “Heart Health NOW Advancing Heart Health in NC Primary Care”, (herein after referred to as “Consent Agreement”), the Participant and Participant’s Participating Entities agree to the following under this Agreement:

1.  Make available Patient Information to NCCCN from Participant’s electronic health records (EHR) system as required during the Term of the Participant’s Consent Agreement.

2.  Utilize the Informatics Center’s Heart Health NOW Dashboard for real-time monitoring of performance and outcomes and as an enabling tool for proactive patient-level intervention and care gap identification.

3.  Plan, implement and track performance and outcomes of improvement interventions.

Responsibilities of NCCCN:

1.  Establish and maintain connectivity between Participant’s electronic health records (EHR) system and the Informatics Center to facilitate the exchange of Patient Information as contemplated under the Project.

2.  Provide access to the Heart Health NOW Dashboard to Participant and Participant’s Participating Entities that have executed the Consent Agreement.

3.  Offer instructions and/or training on the use of analytic application(s) developed and/or utilized for the Program.

4.  Disclose Participant’s Patient Information to the Cecil B. Sheps Center for Health Services Research (“Sheps Center”) for Research, to the extent the Patient Information requested from the Sheps Center constitutes a limited data set as defined at 45 C.F.R. § 164.541(e), and in accordance with a data use agreement executed by the Sheps Center and NCCCN, the Consent Agreement and this Agreement. Further, NCCCN shall:

a.  Disclose only the minimum necessary Patient Information for the Project’s Research purpose.

b.  Maintain a record of all Disclosures for Research in accordance with NCCCN Policies and Procedures.