GPs and nurses in primary care want to overcome barriers to discussion about end of life care with their heart failure patients, according to new research from Dr Markus Schichtel and team, but they need specific interventions to make this possible. The research explored the process of discussion, called advance care planning, or ACP, amongst […]
Share your experience of care for heart failure during a pandemic
Determining perspectives of patients and healthcare providers on managing patients with heart failure during a pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown has revealed a number of changes in practice and challenges in providing care for patients with heart failure and other long-term conditions during a time when resources are shifted to fighting the infection. […]
Lack of understanding of common heart condition leads to missed treatment opportunities, study suggests
Poor awareness of a condition known as Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) – the cause of a half of all cases of heart failure in England – could be hindering opportunities to improve care for patients, say researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, and Keele. We heard some clinicians asking: what’s the […]
Research Alert and video: Advance care planning in heart failure patients
This research alert is for those working in healthcare. It summarises the case for interventions to engage clinicians in advance care planning with heart failure patients and sets out the latest findings from our research into what interventions work. See the two minute video about this topic on our YouTube channel and download this page […]
How to help doctors discuss treatment options with heart failure patients
Doctors and other clinicians looking after patients with heart failure may avoid ‘Advance Care Planning’ conversations with the patient because they seem like an admission of failure, according to a new review of research looking at how these conversations are helped or hindered. Some clinicians feared that such conversations would ‘destroy hope’. Cardiologists in particular […]