IMR Press / RCM / Volume 22 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm.2021.01.272
Open Access Review
Rethinking heart failure care and health technologies from early COVID-19 experiences - A narrative review
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1 Victoria University, PO Box 14428 Melbourne Victoria 8001, Melbourne, Australia
2 University of Notre Dame, Werribee Mercy Sub School, School of Medicine Sydney, 300 Princes Hwy, Werribee VIC 3030, Australia
3 Academic Dean, Victorian Institute of Technology, Level 14, 123 Queen Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
4 Flinders University & SAHMRI, Sturt Rd, Bedford Park SA 5042, Australia
5 Professor and Head of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Flinders Medical Centre, Fli nders Drive, Bedford Park SA 5042 GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia
*Correspondence: maximilian.decourten@vu.edu.au (Maximilian De Courten)
Academic Editor: Peter A. McCullough
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2021, 22(1), 105–114; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm.2021.01.272
Submitted: 4 December 2020 | Revised: 4 March 2021 | Accepted: 4 March 2021 | Published: 30 March 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Utilizing Technology in the COVID 19 era)
Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Abstract

Heart Failure (HF), a common chronic disease, requires multidisciplinary care to optimise outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on people’s movement and access to health services, introduced severe challenges to chronic disease management. The era that will evolve after this pandemic is likely to provide uncertainty and service model disruptions. HF treatment is based on guidelines derived from randomised clinical trial evidence. Translational shortfalls from trials into practice have been overcome with post-trial service improvement studies like OPTIMIZE-HF where a team using a process of care can translate evidence to the general population. However, gaps remain for vulnerable populations e.g. those with more severe HF, with multiple comorbid conditions, and certain demographic groups and/or residents in remote locations. Health technology has come with great promise, to fill some of these gaps. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to observe, from Australian healthcare lens, HF management outside the traditional model of care. This narrative review describes relatively recent events with health technology as a solution to improve on service gaps.

Keywords
Congestive heart failure
Chronic disease management
Heart failure
Self-management
Health hubs
Health technology
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