Over 10 million people in Europe are living with heart failure, but 28% of them do not receive the best-practice care recommended by clinical guidelines. This is an unacceptable care gap, but one that we can hope to close.
HFPN’s new report, From guidelines to action: Opportunities for change following the 2021 ESC guidelines, is part of our efforts to close this gap. It marks the start of our exciting new work aiming to translate international heart failure guidelines into concrete action at national and local levels.
HFPN supports the heart failure community in its efforts to drive actionable change and make a real impact on the care and treatment of people with heart failure. We see the 2021 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines as catalyst for this action.
Among the changes in the new guidelines, we are excited to see a renewed focus on the importance of person-centred care and self-management, recognition of the potential benefits of telemonitoring and the introduction of dedicated recommendations for the management of heart failure alongside other commonly occurring conditions.
Our report lays out the potential implications of these changes for people with heart failure and wider society. We look at the barriers to and opportunities for translating the guidelines into action, and provide four ‘policy hooks’ that the heart failure community can use to engage policymakers:
We hope that this work will equip advocates with the tools to communicate effectively with decision-makers, and will help maximise the opportunities that the guidelines present for improving diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for people living with heart failure.
