Addressing advances in current standards of care, theoretical care and break-out therapies when it comes to treating patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), as well as how to make this care accessible to everyone, were the focus of ACC's latest Heart House Roundtable on Oct. 7.

Chaired by Clyde W. Yancy, MD, MSc, MACC, and Vice Chair Gurusher S. Panjrath, MD, FACC, the roundtable featured interactive discussions on how to improve implementation of established HF guideline-directed medical therapy and breakthrough therapies, and how to overcome disparities in HF management. Among the faculty, Michelle Kittleson, MD, PhD, FACC, and Leslie Cooper Jr., MD, FACC, offered insights on "HFrEF in 2020: Optimal Therapies and Beyond" and "COVID-19 and Myocarditis," respectively.

Khadijah Breathett, MD, MS, FACC, and Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, FACC, also engaged participants around race- and gender-based disparities in access and outcomes, and structural, organizational and administrative changes necessary to establish equity in care.

"Heart failure impacts all of us across all ethnic and racial groups but it differentially impacts certain groups, with the prevalence in African-Americans and Hispanics being higher than in Whites," said Breathett.

Maddox highlighted three problems in equity in HF: 1) access to care; 2) drug prices; and 3) payment models; and noted the importance of policy to help facilitate change.

"These roundtable discussions are incredibly important because they anticipate where we will be going in the near future and we have so much space now to explore because of the recent discoveries in the field of heart failure," said Yancy. Coming out of the Roundtable, the goal is to prioritize next steps around what guidance is needed to support the cardiovascular community as clinicians navigate through this transformative period in heart failure.

Clinical Topics: COVID-19 Hub, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies, Acute Heart Failure

Keywords: ACC Publications, Cardiology Magazine, Heart Failure, Myocarditis, Point-of-Care Systems, Quality of Life, Prevalence, African Americans, Cardiovascular Diseases, COVID-19, Goals, Standard of Care, Stroke Volume, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Hispanic Americans

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