The urgency to educate “lost at heart” patients

Topics: Heart Failure (HF)

Date: 04 Feb 2009

As recently pointed out in an influential American newspaper, 3 out of the 5 most costly medical conditions on a global scale are related to cardiovascular disease, namely coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and heart failure (1). Indeed the prevention of heart failure has been described as an “urgent public health need" in previous ESC press releases.

Unfortunately, however dedicated the medical profession is to the sub-specialty judging by the success of the Heart Failure congress (2) physicians and cardiologists alone cannot achieve miracles. It requires a life-saving initiative that is both simpler and more complicated as it makes the target ever so broad and hard to reach.

It comes down to educating the patients with simple life-saving facts:

Learning that shortness of breath could lead to a heart attack
Early detection of decompensation conditions in heart failure
Understanding that being diagnosed with heart failure doesn’t mean dying of a heart attack. There may be no cure for heart failure as yet, but patients can live with it for many years, with a few inevitable adjustments to their lifestyle.
Cutting down on all the “baddies” and eating healthily thanks to an adapted diet

Heart failure is different from any other disease, as it is the only condition that is going to increase regardless of how hard we fight it. Its prevalence will increase due to the ageing of the population which no-one has the ability to reverse...

Reaching and educating patients may not eradicate the disease altogether but it could reduce it in the long term.

Primary care physicians also need to be alerted of the exponential growth of the disease to have the relevant knowledge and tools to diagnose in its earliest possible stages.

“People just don't realise they have a treatable disease. Breathlessness, tiredness, bronchitis . . . They simply accept these symptoms as part of ageing. We need to help primary care physicians identify the undiagnosed people with heart failure." Around 70% of heart failure patients are today managed by primary care physicians. "They need to know what treatment options are available," explains Professor Kenneth Dickstein from Stavanger University Hospital in Norway.

Hence the importance of a heart failure awareness week such as the one taking place in the USA from 8th to 14th February to open eyes and trigger interest among potential and existing victims of the disease.

This is with “lost at heart” patients in mind that the Heart Failure Association of the ESC (3) decided to create the patient website, http://www.heartfailurematters.org/ (4), to provide verified information written by experts in the field, to help patients understand and come to grips with the disease, rather than potentially jump to the wrong conclusions from unverified websites.

Conclusion However large the task, the patient testimonies we receive, which carry hope and trust, mean we must be going in the right direction, and we hope that you in turn will relay the message to whoever you can...

Authors: ESC Editorial Communications

References

(1) Heart failure is a cluster of symptoms resulting from the heart's inability to pump blood as required by the body. This in itself is usually because of previous damage to the heart muscle, following a heart attack, coronary disease or hypertension. The resulting symptoms of heart failure are breathlessness, exercise intolerance, and a build-up of fluid in the lungs and abdomen

(2) The Heart Failure 2008 congress attracted 3458 participants and 406 exhibitors. 1097 abstracts were submitted last year. The Heart Failure 2009 congress will be held from 30 May to 2 June 2009 in Nice, France

(3) The Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (HFA) welcomes all practicing Cardiologists and Physicians involved in the management of patients with heart failure, Basic Scientists, Nurses, Industry Representatives, and European Policy Makers, with a special interest in heart Failure
(4) www.heartfailurematters.org, initiated by the HFA of the ESC, is a website containing practical heart failure information for patients, families, and caregivers
(5) The Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (HFA of the ESC) benefits from the Google Grants programme and would like Google for its support in promoting http://www.heartfailurematters.org/