Today the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) officially launched the STS/ACC TVT Registry^TM, a new benchmarking tool developed to track patient safety and real-world outcomes related to new and emerging transcatheter valve therapy (TVT) procedures.

Backed by the registry expertise of the ACC’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR^®) and the STS National Database, the TVT Registry will serve as the main repository for all clinical data related to TVT and is positioned to capture outcomes data for expanded indications, as well as additional devices and procedures that will likely emerge in the future. It will be an ideal mechanism for monitoring the use of TVT since it can provide relatively rapid feedback to individual sites and help identify trends in its usage. It will also provide a rich source of data for long-term research.

The launch of this registry is testament to what can be accomplished when medical professional societies, industry and regulatory agencies come together. The College and STS worked closely with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with input from The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention (SCAI) and The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), to make this registry a reality. We also continue to work with these same stakeholders on educational programs and several clinical documents that will guide appropriate use moving forward.

TVT is truly a transformational procedure and this is an exciting time for our profession. While we still have a ways to go, the launch of the TVT Registry, coupled with last month’s approval by the FDA of the Edwards Lifesciences SAPIEN Transcatheter Heart Valve and the announcement of a National Coverage Determination Analysis by CMS, puts us one more giant step forward on the TVT path. I encourage everyone to take advantage of the current clinical documents addressing TVT, as well as take part in education programs like next week’s ACCF/STS Transcatheter Heart Valve (THV) Symposium and ACC.12 in Chicago next March.

To learn more about the registry and for additional TVT resources, visit TVTregistry.org. Stay tuned for upcoming educational opportunities and events.