TreatHF helps clinicians determine which therapies are suggested for their patients with symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (stage C HFrEF) and provides guidance on the use of each therapy. Users of the app should:

  • Enter patient indications
  • View individualized next steps for therapy
  • Consult guiding strategies on optimizing medical therapy as part of heart failure care
  • Access detailed information on the use of each specific medication
  • Generate a print or email summary as the basis of a care plan

The TreatHF is free for both ACC members and non-members.

  • To download on a mobile device (App or Android), search "TreatHF" in the iTunes or Google Play app stores.
  • To access on the web, go to: https://tools.acc.org/TreatHF

TreatHF is intended to support clinical decision making related to the optimization of medical therapies to treat chronic symptomatic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (stage C HFrEF). The app provides advice on the initiation, titration, and overall use of therapies recommended for an individual patient based on specified indications. These indications are derived from ACC/AHA/HFSA guidelines and other clinical policy.  Final therapy decisions should be made after a comprehensive assessment of, and discussion with the patient. In addition, the scope of the app is limited to drug therapy, which should be considered as just one component of the comprehensive management of a heart failure patient which also encompasses suitable lifestyle management, specialty referrals, and any other treatment as needed. Lastly, information in the app is intended to support clinical decision making and does not represent the only or the best course of care, or replace clinical judgment.

The content and advice in this app are derived from the 2021 Update to the 2017 ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathway for Optimization of Heart Failure Treatment, the 2017 ACC/AHA/HFSA Focused Update of the 2013 ACC/AHA Guideline for the Management of HF, and the 2013 ACCF/AHA Guideline for the Management of Heart Failure. The content of the source documents and the resulting app are derived by input from a wide variety of specialists through workgroups and in the 2016 Heart Failure Roundtable.

The app was developed by the ACC to improve the management of heart failure through the implementation of updated clinical policy at the point of care. It was developed with the review and guidance of a work group of ACC members who also served on the writing committees for the Heart Failure Guideline and the Expert Consensus Pathway Documents. Development of the app also included user testing with members of the ACC, as well as clinicians from relevant specialties.

Content in the app will be updated to reflect any changes to its source documents and the related clinical environment. Relevant relationships to other existing ACC clinical policy documents and resources will also be considered in future updates. Lastly, ongoing user feedback helps identify needs and opportunities for future updates.

You can provide feedback and suggestions about the app in two ways:

  1. Complete the ACC's feedback survey here, which is also accessible through the "About App" section in the app.
  2. Leave comments on the iTunes or Google Play page for the app.

The ACC is also collecting data about the app through analytics and usability studies.  Feedback is used to ensure the app's accuracy and to identify opportunities for improving the app's user experience and to inform the ACC Mobile App portfolio.

The app's intended target audience are clinicians involved in the management of patients with chronic stage C HFrEF. It is designed to be used by clinicians both within and outside of cardiology. This may include general cardiologists, nurse practitioners, hospitalists, primary care physicians, physician assistants, and medical students.

The app is intended for use by clinicians as part of clinical practice. The app is freely available to all users, including patients, but is not intended for direct use by patients.

No patient information is collected and stored in the app. Anonymous user behavior (e.g., number of people who downloaded the app, how many times a day the app was used) will be gathered through Google Analytics. All data collected in the app is anonymous and cannot be traced back to an individual user.

The app is intended to be used in concert with ACC's other heart failure clinical policies and tools. This includes the ACC.org Heart Failure Toolkit, the Succeed in Managing Heart Failure (SIMHF) Initiative, the ICD/CRT Appropriate Use Criteria App, the Guideline Clinical App, and patient-focused heart failure resources on CardioSmart.org. The app is part of the ACC Clinical Mobile App Collection designed to help optimize patient care. More information about ACC's Clinical App Collection can be found here.

TreatHF was developed solely by the American College of Cardiology. However, the source documents used to populate the content of the app were developed in partnership with the American Heart Association and the Heart Failure Society of America. TreatHF is part of the Succeed in Managing Heart Failure (SIMHF) Initiative, which is supported by Novartis.

The app has both a print and an email function for users to send a summary of their individual app sessions to a recipient of their choice. These outputs can then be transferred into EMR notes. Users can also utilize a query string functionality to export data points from their EMR to populate the app's questions. However, there is no current functionality to export results and output from the app back to the EMR.

Contact the ACC at 1-800-253-4636, ext. 5603 or membercare@acc.org