Impact of Automatic Prompts in Echocardiographic Reports on Referral to Cardiology

Valvular heart disease (VHD) is next epidemic in the cardiovascular field, affecting millions of people worldwide and having a major impact on health care systems. With aging of the population, the incidence and prevalence of VHD will continue to increase.1-3 There is no medication that can prevent VHD progression. Appropriate management of patients with VHD relies on 3 pillars, early diagnosis, careful follow-up, and timely intervention. Regular follow-up by cardiologists and implementation of specialized VHD clinics have demonstrated a beneficial effect on patients' outcomes. 4Unfortunately, multiple studies have shown that patients with VHD remain undertreated and referred late in the course of the disease with inequality in access to care and treatment options. 5-12 Late presentation is associated with major penalties for patients who incur an increased risk of mortality and morbidity not restored even by a successful intervention. 13-17 In a community-based study collecting all consecutive patients diagnosed with moderate or severe mitral regurgitation (MR) based on echocardiography, only 15% were referred to surgery despite a clear (class I) indication for intervention. 18 These findings are even more remarkable as all patients were diagnosed with an echocardiogram performed at the Mayo Clinic, they had access to a world renown institution capable of achieving excellent surgical outcomes and there were no health care coverage issues. Potential reasons explaining the late referral and undertreatment of patients with VHD are insufficient physicians' knowledge regarding the management and timing of intervention, misbelief regarding the risk/benefit ratio of valvular interventions, incomplete understanding of the echocardiogram reports and limited access to cardiologists and more specifically to VHD specialists. 19, 20 We hypothesize that highlighting the importance of valvular echocardiographic findings to the ordering (non-cardiologist) physicians in an easy and comprehensive wording and offering access to cardiologists specialized in VHD will improve patients' referral rates to cardiologist and ultimately patients' outcomes. Implementation of prompts into clinical reports in various settings including VHD has been advocated but formal demonstration of its efficacy is lacking.

In this randomized controlled study, we will evaluate the impact of automatic prompts added to the conclusion of the echocardiographic reports of patient diagnosed with significant VHD 1) suggesting referral to a cardiologist or 2) suggesting referral to a cardiologist and offering the help of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Center for Valvular Heart Diseases, compared to current standard of care (no prompts) on the rates and time to an evaluation by a cardiologist. This study will enable us to assess the impact of diagnostic prompts in isolation and associated to a facilitated access to VHD experts compared to our current practice.

This study is being conducted to see if addition of a prompt will increase the rate of patients seen by a cardiologist within 6 months after the TTE by 20% (absolute increase).