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CC BY 4.0 · Appl Clin Inform 2025; 16(02): 429-438
DOI: 10.1055/a-2513-9400
Case Report

Creation of an Interactive Dashboard to Facilitate Early Detection of Cardiac Amyloidosis in African American Veterans

Hamza Ghannam
1   University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Arizona, United States
,
Vikram Singh
1   University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson, Arizona, United States
,
Alberta L. Warner
2   Department of Cardiology, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States
,
Ariel Powell
2   Department of Cardiology, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, United States
,
Ramona Gelzer Bell
3   Department of Cardiology, James A Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States
,
Kevin Chow
3   Department of Cardiology, James A Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States
,
Kimberly D. Braswell
3   Department of Cardiology, James A Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, Florida, United States
,
Rene Hearns
4   Department of Cardiology, VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System, Cleveland, Ohio, United States
,
Vinod Aggarwal
5   VHA Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning, VA Central Office, Washington, Dist. of Columbia, United States
6   MDClone Limited, Be’er Sheva, Israel
,
Celina Roy
7   Department of Cardiology, Southern Arizona VA Health System, Tucson, Arizona, United States
,
Douglas Stoehr
7   Department of Cardiology, Southern Arizona VA Health System, Tucson, Arizona, United States
,
Jenice Guzman-Clark
7   Department of Cardiology, Southern Arizona VA Health System, Tucson, Arizona, United States
,
Sandesh Dev
7   Department of Cardiology, Southern Arizona VA Health System, Tucson, Arizona, United States
8   Department of Complex Adaptive Systems and Consulting, Arizona State University, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding This project is the result of work supported with resources from VA facilities in Tampa, Greater Los Angeles, and Tucson. This project was funded in part by an independent quality improvement grant from Pfizer Inc. to Arizona State University to address healthcare barriers for cardiac amyloidosis that contribute to geographic and racial disparities. The sponsor had no role in project design or execution. The content does not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs nor the United States government.
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Abstract

Background Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an underdiagnosed cause of heart failure (HF) that disproportionately impacts men of African descent. Without a standardized method of screening and scattered patient health information, clinicians must integrate data that spans multiple disease systems and is stored across the electronic health record.

Objectives The aim of this project was to create a dashboard to facilitate identification of high-risk African American (AA) veterans who would benefit from CA screening tests. This paper described the development of the dashboard and identified barriers and opportunities in dashboard development.

Methods Three Veterans Affairs (VA) health systems participated in this project. Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Report Builder was utilized to create an interactive dashboard that refreshes daily through stored procedures using SQL Server Integration Services and the SQL Server Job Agent. Inclusion criteria included AA patients less than 90 years old with a history of HF. The 2023 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association consensus statement on diagnosis and treatment of transthyretin CA was the source of evidence in creating the inclusion criteria and parameters of interest.

Results The final dashboard contained 1,732 HF patients who met inclusion criteria, of which 949 (55%) were identified as high risk. We faced several challenges in this project, including time required for dashboard development, limited team experience in specifying dashboard requirements, identifying informatics counterparts at all sites, and standardizing data across three VA hospitals.

Conclusion In this clinical improvement project, we created a dashboard that identifies AA veterans with HF at risk for CA and that can help to mitigate the impact of CA on this population.

Keywords

dashboard - cardiac amyloidosis - electronic healthcare record - African American veterans

Protection of Human and Animal Subjects

Each site's institutional review board determined the project to be quality improvement and not research.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 19 July 2024

Accepted: 08 January 2025

Article published online:
14 May 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Georg Thieme Verlag KG
Oswald-Hesse-Straße 50, 70469 Stuttgart, Germany

 

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