Welcome to INTERMACS^TM!

The Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support is a North American registry established in 2005 for patients who are receiving mechanical circulatory support device therapy to treat advanced heart failure. INTERMACS^TM was established as a joint effort of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), clinicians, scientists and industry representatives in conjunction with Dr. James K. Kirklin and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

INTERMACS^TM is a prospective registry that collects clinical data, including follow up, essentially as it happens.  Post implant follow up data is collected at 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and every 6 months thereafter.  Major outcomes after implant, e.g. death, explant, rehospitalization and adverse events, are entered as they occur and also as part of the defined follow-up scheduled intervals. 

INTERMACS^TM provides contemporary data to demonstrate the continued progress of outcomes, with additional insight into appropriate risk stratification and patient selection.  Death, transplant, and explant are the major discrete endpoints recorded.

Complex endpoints that include the patient’s level of function and quality of life, critical to the evaluation of current MCSD therapy, for which improvements in both survival and function have been compelling. These indices are becoming increasingly important as the survival improves, and new devices will be compared for outcomes beyond survival.

May 2, 2012

The new INTERMACS Protocol Version 3.0 and Users’ Guide are being implemented today!  Look for the new Protocol and Users Guide and changes to the web based data entry system.  Please contact your INTERMACS nurse monitor if you have any questions regarding the use of the new documents or data entry.