ACC and BIDMC Smith Center Collaborate on Renal Denervation Registry

June 10, 2025—The American College of Cardiology (ACC) reported that the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts, and ACC are collaborating on a renal denervation (RDN) module that leverages the Smith Center’s RDN Registry and the ACC CathPCI Registry.

According to ACC, the initiative seeks to expand the collection of real-world data on patients undergoing RDN across hospitals in the United States and ensure that the most vulnerable patients receive optimal, guideline-directed care to reduce uncontrolled high blood pressure.

The Smith Center’s RDN Registry is designed to enable research and analysis of real-world data to characterize baseline patient characteristics, disease progression, and treatment-based outcomes for patients undergoing RDN, stated ACC. The ACC CathPCI Registry is part of the ACC National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR).

As outlined by ACC, the knowledge gained by the collaboration will:

• Contribute valuable data on the safety, efficacy, and durability of RDN as an interventional strategy for the management of uncontrolled hypertension.
• Provide data-driven insights on RDN to enable a deeper understanding of new disease areas of interest, inform study design, and enhance the execution of clinical trials.
• Meet regulatory and stakeholder needs for assessing and monitoring long-term safety and efficacy of RDN.
• Expand research opportunities that contribute to a better understanding of RDN treatment in real-world patients.

Steve Bradley, MD, Immediate Past Chair of the ACC NCDR Oversight Committee, and Eric A. Secemsky, MD, Director of Vascular Intervention at BIDMC and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, commented on the collaboration in the ACC report.

“High blood pressure can have devastating health effects, and for many people, lifestyle modification and medication aren’t enough,” stated Dr. Bradley. “RDN can be an important therapy for some patients, but because it’s a newer technology, we are lacking comprehensive data on who is receiving it, who would most benefit, and who is seeing positive results.”

He continued, “This collaboration would enable tracking and analyzing of how this technology is being used in the real world to help patients and provide insights on how to help more people with high blood pressure.”

Dr. Secemsky stated, “The Smith Center is thrilled to collaborate with the ACC on this important endeavor. RDN is a new procedure in the United States, and it is critical to collect early procedural experiences, identify gaps in care, and monitor long-term safety and efficacy.”

He added, “Through synergizing our center’s expertise in hypertension care and research with the ACC’s extensive experience with clinical registries, we are confident that we will establish a robust database with far-reaching implications for the treatment of patients with uncontrolled hypertension. We also look forward to deepening the collaboration between the Smith Center and the ACC to advance evidence development and improve patient outcomes.”

The BIDMC contact for hospitals interested in participating in the collaboration is: khannaga@bidmc.harvard.edu. The ACC contact for information on leveraging the RDN Registry for research is ranson@acc.org, advised ACC.