What your doctor can do

In order to best cope with heart failure, particularly with congestive heart failure (CHF), support by a multidisciplinary team of health care professionals, including your primary care physician, is essential – with your doctor and nurse as the core staff. They will serve as an anchor and contact point for a variety of information that you should collect to better understand your condition and your risks, but also about your treatment options and opportunities to improve self-care.

Ask your doctor, ask your nurse! They are educated to answer questions addressing heart failure drugs and medicines including both effects and side effects, device options including cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) and/or implanted defibrillator therapy (ICD), and potential surgical options. Importantly, they can also give advice on where to obtain additional help, for example through dedicated heart failure programmes or heart failure clinics or the option to participate in a telemonitoring programme.

This section aims to help you to understand the different treatments and services that can help you to manage and improve your ability to live well with heart failure.

ESC Guidelines for Heart Failure

What patients need to know

This guide for patients from the European Society of Cardiology aims to provide an overview of the latest evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.

In particular, it should help patients to understand the:

  • main types of heart failure
  • medicines used to treat heart failure
  • devices that may be appropriate
  • importance of rehabilitation
  • management by a multidisciplinary team
  • importance of self-care in managing your own condition

Learn more

AN ANIMATED JOURNEY THROUGH HEART FAILURE

A series of 9 simple, captivating animations explaining heart failure and its treatment.

These narrated animations explain how a healthy heart works, what happens to it in heart failure and how various treatments work to improve your health.

PATIENT AND CAREGIVERS VIDEOS

In this section you can watch, listen or read interviews with other people with heart failure and their caregivers.

VISIT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE

and share your own views and experiences with other patients, families and caregivers.

heartfailurematters.org is a European Society of Cardiology website

The heartfailurematters.org website was developed under the direction of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The ESC is a world leader in the discovery and dissemination of best practices in cardiovascular medicine. Our members and decision-makers are healthcare professionals who volunteer their time and expertise to represent professionals in the field of cardiology in Europe and beyond.

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