Project: Innovation: early diagnosis in community settings

Innovation: early diagnosis in community settings
This report focuses on early diagnosis of heart failure in community settings, identifying four key areas of innovation.

What is Innovation in heart failure: early diagnosis in community settings?

This report explores common challenges in heart failure diagnosis and presents four major opportunities for innovation in community-based diagnosis:

  • Targeted screening in high-risk groups
  • Use of point-of-care devices
  • Detection via electronic health records
  • Redesign of healthcare services.

The report also showcases promising case studies and initiatives, aiming to improve community-based diagnosis.

Building on this report, the Heart Failure Policy Network will hold a round-table discussion with experts in heart failure innovation in early 2023, to discuss the major challenges to the implementation of innovative tools in heart failure and propose recommendations to overcome them. This will inform our future work on this topic.

If you would like to share the messages from this report, please find the accompanying communications pack here.

Download report Download infographic

Why is this work important?

Across Europe, heart failure is often diagnosed too late. Most people are diagnosed only in hospital, even though data from the UK show that one in three of these people have previously presented with symptoms in primary care. Early diagnosis is essential to achieve better outcomes for people living with heart failure and to prevent serious hospitalisations.

Innovative approaches and technologies can strengthen the diagnosis of heart failure in community settings, such as primary care services. This has the potential to ensure heart failure is diagnosed early and managed appropriately, thus preventing hospitalisations.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed our overreliance on acute and hospital-focused models of care, but it also accelerated the use of innovative technologies and tools to ensure access to diagnosis and care for conditions such as heart failure. During the pandemic, primary and community care have come to play a bigger role in heart failure diagnosis and care in many European countries.

Case studies

Click the map to sort the case studies by country or view all below

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The following case studies are based on research that was conducted in 2022.
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Project Advisory Group

Nicolas Girerd
Nancy Clinical Investigation Centre, France
Loreena Hill
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Denis Janssen
The Patient’s Voice, the Netherlands
Miek Smeets
Academic Center for General Practice, KU Leuven, Belgium
Stefan Störk
Comprehensive Heart Failure Center, University Hospital Würzburg, Germany
Izabella Uchmanowicz
Association of Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professions, European Society of Cardiology, Poland

Considerable thanks are due to the following experts for sharing their knowledge in interviews:

  • Edith Donnelly, Southern Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Ireland
  • Matthew Kahn, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, England
  • Delyth Rucarean, Swansea Bay University Health Board, Wales

 

Funders

This project was made possible with financial support from AstraZeneca.

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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 .