JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QCDRs) have proliferated across many medical specialties, facilitating quality measure performance monitoring and reporting in programs like the CMS Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Many of these QCDRs offer web-based, clinician-facing dashboards to support quality improvement. However, it is unknown whether engagement with such dashboards is associated with improvements in quality of care.

Objective:

We aimed to investigate the cross-sectional relationship between engagement with a QCDR dashboard and quality measure performance.

Methods:

Data derived from a rheumatology QCDR (“RISE”) and included audit log data from the dashboard and MIPS submission data from the registry vendor from years 2020-2022. Among practices participating in RISE, we assessed aggregated engagement with the QCDR dashboard and quality performance for 8 rheumatology-specific measures, by practice.

Results:

211 practices were included in the study. We observed higher quality measure performance among practices most engaged with the RISE dashboard (vs. practices with no engagement). For 4 measures (osteoporosis screening, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) functional status assessment, RA periodic disease activity assessment, and Hepatitis B safety screening), practices with the most engagement had significantly higher quality performance compared to those with no dashboard engagement, and 3 of these measures exhibited a “dose-response” relationship.

Conclusions:

We found that higher levels of engagement were associated with higher performance on some, but not all, rheumatology-specific quality measures. Additional work is needed to understand whether the dashboard facilitates quality improvement or is merely a marker for high-performing practices.