Current status and problems regarding treating heart failure

ABSTRACT

Heart failure remains a significant socioeconomic burden and leads to critical health problems due to its high mortality and hospitalization rates. Therefore, proper treatment of heart failure is very important in terms of long-term prognosis and quality of life.Current Concepts The use of evidence-based drugs, intervention treatment, and patient education are essential recommendations to improve the prognosis of heart failure. However, these recommendations of treatment guidelines are not well implemented in actual clinical situations. A more realistic solution can be sought considering the domestic situation. First, it is necessary to improve public awareness of the disease. It is also necessary to actively educate medical personnel, including primary care doctors. Second, efforts to improve clinical inertia or neglect of treatment of medical personnel are needed. For a systematic treatment approach, developing performance indicators in heart failure management are necessary, which can be a realistic and suitable alternative to the domestic clinics.Discussion and Conclusion: Applying a well-proven treatment to patients with heart failure should be essential, which is not an option in actual clinical practice. To solve this problem, social attention and efforts, more grand decisions by academic societies, and creative concerns from public institutions should be necessary in the face of the so-called heart failure epidemic around the world and in Korea.