ACC and MedAxiom Collaboration With Royal Philips Seeks to Improve Cardiovascular Care Delivery

March 11, 2021—The American College of Cardiology (ACC); MedAxiom, an ACC company; and Royal Philips announced a collaboration to deliver timely and actionable information along with guidance to align physicians, operations, and finance stakeholders. The goal of the collaboration is to drive significant performance improvements in integrated cardiovascular care in terms of the patient and care provider experience, clinical outcomes, and productivity.

According to the announcement, providers who care for the population of patients with cardiovascular disease face numerous challenges, including a lack of a model for optimizing performance and a void of data or data that are not actionable. To address these challenges, Philips will leverage its cardiovascular research and development and clinical expertise, ACC will provide knowledge that leverages the skill and expertise of more than 54,000 members, and MedAxiom will contribute premier organizational performance solutions.

“The ACC is mission-driven to transform cardiovascular care and improve heart health, and we embrace innovative ways of supporting clinicians and the entire cardiovascular care team,” commented ACC chief executive officer Cathleen C. Gates in the announcement. “By combining Philips’ depth of knowledge in cardiac care delivery with ACC’s robust guideline and clinical document offerings, we’re ensuring clinicians have access to guideline-driven best practices in an impactful way.”

Gerald Blackwell, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of MedAxiom, added, “MedAxiom is excited to collaborate with the ACC and Philips to bring together clinical leadership and strategic alignment aimed at improving clinical, financial, and operational outcomes for cardiovascular service providers. Given the rapidly changing health care environment, we must leverage innovative models designed not only to optimize the way care is delivered and achieve the quadruple aim, but to truly transform cardiovascular care.”

Finally, Bert van Meurs, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Leader of Image Guided Therapy at Royal Philips, stated, “As the delivery of cardiac care faces many challenges, we are implementing integrated solutions and new approaches to help make health care delivery more efficient and effective. By collaborating with ACC and MedAxiom we will advance personalized, efficient, and clinically smart cardiac care that drives optimal outcomes throughout the patient journey.”

The announcement advised that Philips Integrated Cardiovascular Solutions combines systems, devices, informatics, and services to provide the clinical confidence needed to deliver the right care at the right time and addresses the full spectrum of cardiac services. Its goal is to optimize length of stay while reducing readmissions, providing data integration for improved insights and procedural performance. Information from this work along with that provided by the ACC and MedAxiom will empower cardiovascular service providers with data, education, and services to enable providers to optimize efficiency and reduce the total cost of care while continuing to provide the highest quality levels.

Philips, the ACC, and MedAxiom have identified inadequacies exposed by COVID-19 and have used this knowledge to help cardiovascular groups begin to reframe their cardiovascular care delivery. Since fall 2020, Philips’ Triad model has brought together physicians, health care administrators, and industry leaders to innovate the delivery of cardiovascular care through shared accountability and shared risk.