Heart Failure Clinics: Much More than Pharmacotherapy

Abstract

Introduction: Heart failure (HF) is a major cause of increased morbidity and mortality and its prevalence is expected to increase because of the aging population, increased prevalence of risk factors and improved post myocardial infarction survival. There is a relationship between high quality care and improved patient outcome particularly when the care is from specially trained providers. This has brought about the creation of disease specific clinics. The heart failure clinic (HFC) is established for many reasons which include, improvement of clinical outcomes, early detection of symptoms and identification of factors that may lead to progression of heart failure such as poor adherence, socioeconomic and psychological factors. The purpose of this study is to review the multidisciplinary approach to the management of heart failure through the heart failure clinic. Materials and methods: A literature search using the database on Pubmed, Research gate, google scholar, Science direct, African Journal online and British Medical Journal was carried out using the key phrases; heart failure, heart failure clinic, management of heart failure. conclusion: Optimization of guideline-directed medical therapy and the establishment of multidisciplinary heart failure clinics would address several domains of care. It aims to provide comprehensive patient management that would lead to reduced hospitalization and better patient outcomes, if appropriately implemented.