Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) Registry Participation Associated with Significant Gains in...

To examine the association between participation in a qualified clinical data registry and quality measure performance.

We included practices that joined the American College of Rheumatology's Rheumatology Informatics System for Effectiveness (RISE) registry between 2015 - 2021. We calculated annual performance on 4 primary measures and 2 control measures starting 12 months before through 18 months after enrollment. We used an interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis to assess changes in practice-level performance before and after RISE enrollment overall and stratified by practices' baseline performance.

We included 85 practices caring for 331,975 patients. Overall, performance on all primary measures improved during the study period, although RISE enrollment was associated with a significantly greater improvement rate in 1 of the 4 primary measures (RA functional status assessment (slope difference 0.88 percentage points/month; p=0.006). Practices with baseline lower performance had significantly greater improvements after joining RISE for 3 out of the 4 primary measures compared to high-performing practices, including RA functional status assessment, TB screening prior to biologic therapy, and osteoporosis screening.

RISE enrollment was associated with significant improvements in 3 out of 4 rheumatology-specific quality measures for practices with lower baseline performance. These findings suggest that registry participation may accelerate uptake of best practices and narrow performance gaps across sites. Future work is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these improvements.