Approximately 6 million Americans live with heart failure (HF) — a number expected to reach epidemic proportions as the population ages. According to the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives for all, the condition ranks among the costliest to treat and takes a tremendous toll on patients’ quality of life and longevity.
To tackle this growing problem, more than two dozen healthcare systems across the country have enlisted to participate in the American Heart Association’s IMPLEMENT-HF initiative since it launched in 2020. The vision of IMPLEMENT-HF is to create a healthcare ecosystem for heart failure that emphasizes implementation science and patient engagement. IMPLEMENT-HF will work to bridge communication and coordination between care settings, healthcare professionals and patients to achieve precise heart failure management and improve outcomes.
The initiative will use established American Heart Association primary data collection approaches, including the Association’s hospital-based “Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure” program, to identify, implement and evaluate processes to develop new standards for heart failure patient management.
Health systems in seven geographic regions were invited to participate in IMPLEMENT-HF. Sites within these systems joined the call, demonstrating their commitment to quality heart failure care. More information about IMPLEMENT-HF, including a full list of participating hospitals in each health system, can be found at www.heart.org/implementhf.
