Collaborating to tackle heart failure

Health Innovation North West Coast is exploring ways to improve the care of patients with heart failure (HF).

Heart failure accounts for around five per cent of all NHS medical emergency admissions and two per cent of all NHS hospital bed-days. It also accounts for around two per cent of the NHS’s total annual expenditure.

The Health Innovation North West Coast team is joining forces with partners in Cheshire and Merseyside to focus on improving outcomes for patients and limiting the economic impact of heart failure on the NHS and wider society.

The project is part of a national three-year programme that aims to speed up diagnosis, improve the treatment of the condition with medication and technology, and enhance the quality of patients’ lives.

It will also tackle unwarranted variations in access to treatment to reduce inequalities.

The team visited Everton FC’s Goodison Park stadium when the club hosted a heart health screening event that attracted nearly 1,000 fans.

The club’s official charity Everton in the Community collaborated with leading heart failure charity Pumping Marvellous and HF clinicians from Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, along with other volunteers, to offer fans free health checks to enable quicker diagnosis of cardiovascular disease and improve treatment.

The event gave organisers the opportunity to screen people using several pieces of technology. They included a 30-second single-lead ECG and an AI-enabled portable echocardiogram linked to an app to take real-time echo images of people’s hearts.

The AI-enabled device, developed by Us2.ai, is designed for use in the community because it requires limited training but delivers results to a consultant exceptionally quickly.

Organisers also used a point-of-care device to test for NTproBNP, a peptide or amino acid to test for heart failure in those with symptoms.

The devices have the potential to improve community testing for heart failure.

Health Innovation North West Coast has been supported in the scoping project by Dr Rajiv Sankaranarayanan, Consultant Heart Failure Cardiologist at Liverpool University Hospitals and Heart Failure Lead at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside.

He said: “Around a million people in the UK live with heart failure and a further 200,000 cases are diagnosed every year, with the majority, 80 per cent of people, diagnosed in hospital at a later stage of disease trajectory.

“We’ve been happy to share with Health Innovation North West Coast our experience of using AI-enabled technology and other approaches such as point-of-care testing in the community to enable earlier diagnosis and management of HF in the community.”

Michael Foo, who is managing the project for Health Innovation North West Coast, said: “This is an exciting piece of work because tackling cardiovascular disease is a national priority.

“Our work will focus on identifying all the stakeholders in our area and bringing them together so we can make the most of the available expertise and explore options. We will also consult industry to make sure we make the most of healthcare innovations.”

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to keep up with the demands of the body. It usually happens because the heart has become too weak or stiff.

While it can occur at any age, it occurs most commonly in older people, and it is a long-term condition that tends to worsen over time. There are several treatment options available to help control symptoms and improve the quality of life of people living with heart failure.