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Nonmembers, below is just a sampling of the professional resources available to AACVPR Members. CLICK HERE to join today and gain full access to these and other exclusive, valuable membership benefits.

Resources for all AACVPR members

Resources for Nutrition & Behavioral Medicine Professionals

  Resources for AACVPR Members

AACVPR Member Directory

As a benefit of membership, AACVPR members can seek out fellow members using our Membership Directory, allowing direct access to other cardiovascular and pulmonary rehab professionals across the country and throughout the world.

AACVPR Discussion Forum

The AACVPR Discussion Forum provides AACVPR members the opportunity to contribute best practices, share expertise and learn from one another's unique experiences.

Regulatory and Legislative Resources

One of the many valuable benefits our members receive are our regular, timely Reimbursement Updates. These updates are sent directly to our members, and are archived on the website for members to access as needed.

Individual Treatment Plan (ITP) Templates

AACVPR members have access to Individual Treatment Plan (ITP) templates intended to be used as best practice examples.

Documentation of Physician Supervision Templates

AACVPR members have access to a number of samples for documentation of physician involvement in cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation.

Outcomes Resource Guides

Measuring outcomes is a first step in evaluating the effectiveness of the care we provide. Although this is a simple concept, the challenge of applying outcomes management in daily practice does require an investment of time and resources. AACVPR members have access to a comprehensive guide to outcomes including how to collect, analyze and report outcomes as well as assessment tools, calculations, and other valuable resources.

Performance Measures

Performance measures are used by regulatory bodies, third party payers, and other external agencies to identify and and correct gaps in care. AACVPR members have access to detailed performance measures fact sheets, toolkits, scientific position statements, reports and more.

Resources for Cardiovascular Professionals

Cardiac Rehabilitation Fact Sheet

"Cardiac Rehabilitation An Underutilized Class I Treatment for Cardiovascular Disease"

This presentation provides a comprehensive overview of cardiac rehabilitation.

Marketing your Cardiac Rehab Program

AACVPR members have access to PowerPoint© presentations created by the Marketing Committee to assist our members with promoting their cardiac rehabilitation programs. The presentations are focused on three groups critical to the success of a cardiac rehab program: Physicians, Third party payers and Community groups. The presentations are accompanied by speaker notes and supporting information and statistics.

Scientific Position Statements

AACVPR members have access to these scientific position statements and more, including archived resources.

AACVPR Position Statement: Depression Screening in Cardiac Rehab (2005)
AACVPR appointed a task force to develop a statement concerning screening for depression in cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention programs.

Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease: An American Heart Association Scientific Statement From the Council on Clinical Cardiology (Subcommittee on Exercise, Cardiac Rehabilitation, and Prevention) and the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Metabolism (Subcommittee on Physical Activity), in collaboration with the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
This article updates the 1994 American Heart Association scientific statement on cardiac rehabilitation. It provides a review of recommended components for an effective cardiac rehabilitation/secondary prevention program.
Circulation, 2005, 111: 369-376, doi:10.1161/01.CIR.0000151788.08740.5C.

AHA Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations Revision 2006: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee
Improving diet and lifestyle is a critical component of the American Heart Association’s strategy for cardiovascular disease risk reduction in the general population.This document presents recommendations designed to meet this objective.
Circulation 114: 82-96; published online before print as doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.176158.

Core Competencies for Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Professionals: 2010 Update, Position Statement of AACVPR
This update to the previous statement identifies 10 areas of core competencies for CR/SP health care professionals and identifies specific knowledge and skills for each core competency. These core competency areas are consistent with the current list of core components for CR/SP programs published by the AACVPR and the American Heart Association.
Hamm et al. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 2011;  31:2-10.
  
Medical Director Responsibilities for Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation/Secondary Prevention Programs: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association and the American Association for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
This document will serve as a guide for the Medical Director of an outpatient cardiac rehabilitation/secondary prevention program to link the clinical aspects of physician involvement to the provision of services by program staff, while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements.
King ML et al. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation 2005; 25:315-320.

Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Performance Measures

Performance measures are used to identify and correct gaps in care. They are often utilized by external agencies such as third party payers and the National Quality Forum (NQF), which reviews and endorses performance measures that are considered for use by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. AACVPR members have access to the most up-to-date performance measures developed by AACVPR in partnership with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA).

Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Performance Measures Toolkit

The Cardiac Rehabilitation Performance Measures Toolkit is designed for AACVPR members to gain knowledge and provide resources for use to encourage enrollment of appropriate patients into cardiac and peripheral vascular rehabilitation programs.

Scientific Studies

AACVPR members have access to these scientific studies and more, which are routinely reviewed and updated by the Research Committee.

Davis, M. M., Taubert, K., Benin, A. L., Brown, D. W., Mensah, G. A., Baddour, L. M., Dunbar, S., & Krumholz, H. M. (2006). Influenza Vaccine as a Secondary Prevention for Cardiovascular Disease
Circulation, 48(7), 1498–1502e.

Flynn, K. E., Piña, I. L., Whellan, D. J. (2009). Effects of Exercise Training on Health Status in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: HF-ACTION Randomized Controlled Trial
JAMA. 301(14), 1451-1459. doi:10.1001/jama.2009.457.

Herridge, M. L., Stimler, C. E., Southard, D. R., and King, M. L. (2005). Depression Screening in Cardiac Rehabilitation: AACVPR Task Force Report
Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, 25:11-13.

Mosca, L. et al. (2007). Evidence-Based Guidelines for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Women: 2007 Update
Circulation, 115. 1481-1501. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.181546.

Mozaffarian, D., Wilson, P. W. F., & Kannal, W. B. (2008). Beyond Established and Novel Risk Factors: Lifestyle Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease
Circulation. 117, 3031-3038. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.738732

O’Connor, C. M., et al. (2009). Efficacy and Safety of Exercise Training in Patients With Chronic Heart     Failure: HF-ACTION Randomized Controlled Trial
JAMA. 301(14), 1439-1450. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.454.

Papadakis, S., Reid, R. D., Coyle, D., Beaton, L., Angus, D. and Oldridge, N. (2008). Cost-effectiveness of cardiac rehabilitation program delivery models in patients at varying cardiac risk, reason for referral, and sex
European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. 15:347–353.

Suaya, J., Shepard, D., Normand, S. T., Ades, P., Prottas, J. & Stason, W. B. (2007) Use of Cardiac Rehabilitation by Medicare Beneficiaries After Myocardial Infarction or Coronary Bypass Surgery
Circulation, 116: 1653-1662. doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.701466.

Practice Guidelines

AHA/ACC Guidelines for Secondary Prevention for Patients With Coronary and Other Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease: 2006 Update: Endorsed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Circulation 113: 2363-2372, doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.174516

Compelling evidence from recent clinical trials and revised practice guidelines provided the impetus for this update of the 2001 recommendations with evidence-based results.

AHA 2007 Chronic Angina Focused Update of the ACC/AHA 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Chronic Stable Angina: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines Writing Group to Develop the Focused Update of the 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Chronic Stable Angina
Circulation 116: 2762-2772; published online before print as doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.107.187930

These updated guideline recommendations reflect a consensus of expert opinion after a thorough review primarily of late-breaking clinical trials identified through a broad-based vetting process as being important to the relevant patient population, and of other new data deemed to have an impact on patient care.

*ACC/AHA 2005 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease (Lower Extremity, Renal, Mesenteric, and Abdominal Aortic): A Collaborative Report among many professional organizations created a Task Force on Practice Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Peripheral Arterial Disease
J Am Coll Cardiol 2006 47: e1-192.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have jointly engaged in the production of guidelines for practitioners in the care and management of patients with peripheral arterial disease.

*ACC/AHA 2007 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Unstable Angina/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Unstable Angina/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction)

The ACC/AHA Task Force on Practice Guidelines was formed to make recommendations regarding the diagnosis and treatment of patients with known or suspected cardiovascular disease (CVD). Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. Unstable angina (UA) and the closely related condition of non–ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) are very common manifestations of this disease.

Resources for Pulmonary Professionals

 
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Fact Sheet

Pulmonary Rehabilitation Outcomes Toolkit

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) Outcome toolkit was developed by Chris Garvey FNP, MSN, MPA, Gerene Bauldoff, RN, PhD and colleagues to provide AACVPR members with a resource of evidence-based PR outcome measures and related information. Expert opinion and input was sought from volunteers of AACVPR, ATS, ACCP, APTA, AARC, and ERS. The toolkit offers resources for program quality improvement, AACVPR certification/recertification and, ultimately, National Quality Forum Performance Measures for PR.

The toolkit contains several of the most widely used measures in each domain; however, not all possible tools are included. If PR providers utilize outcome measures not included in this toolkit, those tools should be widely used and validated in chronic lung disease whenever possible.

Relevant Scientific Studies

Practice Guidelines

Performance Measures

Performance measures are used to identify and correct gaps in care. They are often utilized by external agencies such as third party payers and the National Quality Forum (NQF), which reviews and endorses performance measures that are considered for use by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Clinical Performance Measures: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Tools Developed by Physicians for Physicians

This measurement tool provides physicians with evidence-based clinical performance measures, including a data collection flow sheet, that may be useful for quality improvement activities within physician practices.
Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (2006).

  Resources for Nutrition & Behavioral Medicine Professionals

Over the decades, it has become increasingly clear the significant role that psychosocial factors play in heart disease.  The primary psychosocial risk factors that have been found to be the most prominent are:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Anger/Hostility
• Social Isolation

Different mood states and behavioral patterns impact our chemistry in ways that are toxic to our hearts.

Patients respond to their heart disease and its consequent medical procedures and surgeries with a variety of psychological reactions that can warrant intervention in the rehab program.  However, these psychosocial risk factors also impact patients’ risk of heart disease before the diagnosis, and can impact morbidity and mortality after the diagnosis. 

Therefore, the psychosocial needs of all of our patients need to be addressed as an integral component of our rehab programs. This resource page is designed to assist rehab staff in attending to these needs.