Project: Heart Failure Policy Summit 2021

Heart Failure Policy Summit 2021
The Heart Failure Policy Network hosted its inaugural Heart Failure Policy Summit in November 2021.

What is the Heart Failure Policy Summit?

The Heart Failure Policy Summit is an online event dedicated to the heart failure policy and advocacy community. It aims to facilitate peer learning among national heart failure advocates and empower them to engage decision-makers in their respective countries. The summit brings together patient advocates, healthcare professionals, clinical leaders, policymakers and other key figures in system transformation.

 

The 2021 Heart Failure Policy Summit

The Heart Failure Policy Network hosted its inaugural summit from 16 to 18 November 2021. The event framed heart failure alongside major policy debates (including health inequalities and COVID-19 recovery plans), showcased change leaders in heart failure policy, and highlighted priority topics for heart failure care in 2021 and beyond.

The summit delivered six sessions across three overarching themes:

  • Understanding heart failure in the new language of 2021
  • Future proofing: how should heart failure strategies evolve in 2021 and beyond?
  • Advocacy workshops and getting ‘inside the mind’ of decision-makers

 

View the programme and watch recordings of the 2021 sessions below.

Download the full agenda

Download a summary of the themes

Summit programme

Day 1: Tuesday, 16 November

 

      1. Heart failure and cardiovascular disease: 2021 and beyond

       

      The COVID-19 pandemic has created a ‘new normal’, but what does this mean for heart failure and cardiovascular disease care? As governments across Europe prepare and launch their national recovery plans, how can we ensure they consider the interests of the heart failure and cardiovascular disease communities, and meet their needs?

      Chaired by: Billy Kelleher MEP (Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe Group; former National Spokesperson on Health, Fianna Fáil, Ireland)

      Featuring:

      • Ed Harding (Network Director, Heart Failure Policy Network; Managing Director, The Health Policy Partnership)
      • Professor Giuseppe Rosano (President-Elect, Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology)
      • Dr Veena Raleigh (Senior Fellow, The King’s Fund)
      • Penilla Gunther (Founder and Programme Director, FOKUS Patient; former Member of the Swedish Parliament; Member of the Heart Failure Patient Council, Global Heart Hub)

       


       

      1. It is time for Europe to take the lead in heart failure

       

      The European Union (EU) could become a powerful platform to advance research efforts, exchange best practices and raise awareness of heart failure among national decision-makers. Following growing calls for an EU Action Plan on Cardiovascular Disease and the launch of new EU funding programmes, how can advocates seize this opportunity to come together and direct much-needed resources towards cardiovascular research, innovation and care?

      Chaired by: Ed Harding (Network Director, Heart Failure Policy Network; Managing Director, The Health Policy Partnership)

      Featuring:

      • Dr Ambrose McLoughlin (Chair, HeartBeat Trust; former Secretary General, Department of Health, Ireland)
      • Birgit Beger (Chief Executive Officer, European Heart Network)
      • John F. Ryan (Director of Public Health, Country Knowledge and Crisis Management for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety)

       


       

      1. No delay: transforming detection, diagnosis and escalation

       

      Diagnosing heart failure and detecting how and when the syndrome worsens remains a persistent challenge for health systems across Europe. As European guidelines shift towards a more person-centred and reactive approach to heart failure care, will our health systems be able to keep up?

      Chaired by: Dr Joe Gallagher (Clinical Lead for Global Health and Cardiovascular, Irish College of General Practitioners)

      Featuring:

      • Professor Ken McDonald (National Clinical Lead for Heart Failure, Health Service Executive, Ireland; Founder and Medical Director, Heart Failure Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital)
      • Professor Mark Petrie (Professor of Cardiology, Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow; Cardiologist, Glasgow Royal Infirmary)
      • Professor Damien Gruson (Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc; Member, Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, European Commission)
      • Professor Salvatore Di Somma (Internist and Cardiologist; Professor of Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome; President of the Scientific Committee, Associazione Italiana Scompensati Cardiaci)
      • Louise Clayton (Advanced Nurse Practitioner; Co-Chair, Alliance for Heart Failure)
      • Marissa A Mes (Programme Lead, Heart Failure Policy Network)

       

      Day 2: Wednesday, 17 November

       

      1. Can digital innovation make person-centred care a reality for all?

       

      Digital innovation could help to drive person-centred care by offering new delivery models to facilitate multidisciplinary working and data sharing, as well as patient involvement and self-care. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the implementation of digital solutions – can we use this momentum to make person-centred care a reality for all?

      Chaired by: Marc Bains (Co-Founder and Vice-President, HeartLife Foundation)

      Featuring:

      • Dr Panos Stafylas (former Scientific Coordinator, United4Health; Health Technology Assessment & eHealth Consultant; Cardiologist)
      • Professor Ken McDonald (National Clinical Lead for Heart Failure, Health Service Executive, Ireland; Founder and Medical Director, Heart Failure Unit, St Vincent’s Hospital)
      • Professor Rod Taylor (Co-chief Investigator, REACH-HF study; Professor of Population Health Research, University of Glasgow)
      • Denis Janssen (Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The Patient’s Voice)
      • Ed Harding (Network Director, Heart Failure Policy Network; Managing Director, The Health Policy Partnership)

       


       

      1. Workforce expansion and clinical delegation

       

      The existing heart failure workforce is under intense pressure and it is highly likely that in many countries, some form of clinical delegation will be needed to ensure equitable access to best-practice heart failure care. How can advocates build a case for decision-makers to invest in a specialist and expanded workforce?

      Chaired by: Professor Izabella Uchmanowicz (President-Elect, European Society of Cardiology Association of Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professions, ACNAP)

      Featuring:

      • Lynn Hedgecoe (Member, Patient Advisory Panel at the British Society for Heart Failure Nurse Forum)
      • Carys Barton (Chair, British Society for Heart Failure Nurse Forum; Heart Failure Nurse Consultant, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust)
      • Dr Miek Smeets (General Practitioner, Academic Center for General Practice at KU Leuven)
      • Professor Josep Comín Colet (Director of Cardiology, Bellvitge University Hospital; Director, South Metropolitan Barcelona Integrated Heart Failure Programme)
      • Marissa A Mes (Programme Lead, Heart Failure Policy Network)

       


       

      Day 3: Thursday, 18 November

       

      1. Raising our game in heart failure advocacy

       

      In the past six years, the Heart Failure Policy Network (HFPN) has developed many policy materials to support heart failure advocates in engaging decision-makers, detailing what they should be asking for and why.

      In this session, we explored how advocates can best engage decision-makers (by learning from successful initiatives) and examined what the HFPN should do to support advocates in 2022 and beyond.

      Chaired by: Neil Johnson (Executive Director, Global Heart Hub; Chief Executive, Croí Heart & Stroke)

      Featuring:

      • Steven Macari (President, Association Vie Et Cœur)
      • Dr Janine Hogan (Director of External Affairs, British Society for Heart Failure)
      • Professor José Ramón González Juanatey (Director, Cardiology and Intensive Cardiac Care, University Clinical Hospital Santiago de Compostela; former President, Spanish Society of Cardiology)
      • Nick Hartshorne-Evans (Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pumping Marvellous Foundation)
      • Paul Mitchell (Communication Director, Fragility Fracture Network; Adjunct Professor, The University of Notre Dame Australia)
      • Penilla Gunther (Founder and Programme Director, FOKUS Patient; former Member of the Swedish Parliament; Member of the Heart Failure Patient Council, Global Heart Hub)
      • Dr Ambrose McLoughlin (Chair, HeartBeat Trust; former Secretary General, Department of Health, Ireland)
      • Joe Farrington-Douglas (Policy Director, Heart Failure Policy Network; Director of Policy, The Health Policy Partnership)

       
      Download the full agenda

Project advisory group

Dr Álvaro González Franco
Coordinator, Heart Failure and Atrial Fibrillation Working Group of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine
Professor José Ramón González Juanatey
Director, Cardiology and Intensive Cardiac Care at the University Hospital Santiago de Compostela; Former President, Spanish Society of Cardiology
Professor Damien Gruson
Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc; Member, Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health, European Commission
Mr Neil Johnson
President, Global Heart Hub; Chief Executive Officer, Croí, The West of Ireland Cardiac and Stroke Foundation
Professor Ekaterini Lambrinou
Professor, Cyprus University of Technology; former Chair, Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions of the European Society of Cardiology
Mr Steven Macari
Founder and President, Association Vie Et Cœur
Professor Anne-Catherine Pouleur
President of Belgian Working Group on Heart Failure and Cardiac Function; Chef de Clinique, Clinique universitaires Saint-Luc
Professor Giuseppe Rosano
President-Elect, Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology
Dr Miek Smeets
General Practitioner, Academic Centre for General Practice at KU Leuven
Professor Izabella Uchmanowicz
President-Elect, Association of Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professions of the European Society of Cardiology; Past-President, Nursing and Medical Technology Section of the Polish Cardiac Society

Funders

The 2021 Heart Failure Policy Summit is sponsored by AstraZeneca, Vifor Pharma, Bayer AG and Boehringer Ingelheim. Sponsors have provided input to the summit’s agenda, which was developed by the HFPN Secretariat. Full editorial control of all summit materials and sessions (including speaker management) lies with the HFPN Secretariat, guided by the Steering Committee and Summit Project Advisory Group.

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The Heart Failure Policy Network is an independent, multidisciplinary platform made possible with financial support from AstraZeneca and Roche Diagnostics. The content produced by the Network is not biased toward any specific treatment or therapy. All outputs are guided and endorsed by the Network’s members. All members provide their time for free. The Network is hosted by The Health Policy Partnership .