The cost-effective way forward for the management of the patient with heart failure

Making sense of personal health information: challenges for information visualization

This article presents a systematic review of the literature on information visualization for making sense of personal health information. Based on this review, five application themes were identified: treatment planning, examination of patients' medical records, representation of pedigrees and family history, communication and shared decision making, and life management and health monitoring. While there are recognized design challenges associated with each of these themes, such as how best to represent data visually and integrate qualitative and quantitative information, other challenges and opportunities have received little attention to date. In this article, we highlight, in particular, the opportunities for supporting people in better understanding their own illnesses and making sense of their health conditions in order to manage them more effectively.

The effects of an advanced practice nurse-directed heart failure program

This study sought to determine if an inpatient heart failure program directed by an advanced practice nurse could affect length of hospital stay, mortality, readmission rates, and adherence to the recommended clinical regimen.

Economic burden of heart failure: a summary of recent literature

OBJECTIVE

We reviewed literature published from 1995 to 2002 to highlight findings on the economic burden of heart failure (HF). Methods A key-word search of literature indexes for relevant citations identified 54 articles that were then summarized for findings on HF economics.

RESULTS

Results were described in terms of burden of illness, cost-effectiveness analysis, and resource utilization and costs. Hospitalization of the elderly is the driving force behind HF costs. Interventions that decrease the frequency of hospital admissions while maintaining clinical and patient reported outcomes are considered a high priority among decision makers and clinicians. Although the cost-effectiveness of therapy with beta-adrenergic blocking agents has been well established in the literature, the cost-effectiveness of hospital- or home-based HF management programs is still under debate. The issues of payer status and physician specialty impact on decreased hospital admission and cost have been inconclusive.

CONCLUSIONS

Any intervention capable of decreasing even a small fraction of adverse outcomes, most notably hospital admission and length of stay, could trigger significant cost savings in the management of HF. Public policy makers, together with clinicians identifying cost saving or cost-effective interventions in their practice, are expected to increase their efforts to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and outcomes of medical and pharmacologic interventions in HF.

The impact of an outpatient heart failure clinic on hospital costs and admissions

This study of 216 congestive heart failure (CHF) patients at a large teaching hospital in south-central Ontario was undertaken to determine whether the patients managed in an outpatient heart failure clinic used fewer hospital resources (as expressed in number of admissions, complexity of admission, and length of stay (LOS)) than a matched cohort who were not managed in an outpatient clinic. Statistical significance of LOS opportunities could not be demonstrated (owing to sample size), however, the heart failure clinic is making a positive impact on all types of admissions (CHF and non-CHF) in terms of LOS and suggests that management in an outpatient setting for chronic disease states is important for acute care hospitals to consider.

A randomized trial of the efficacy of multidisciplinary care in heart failure outpatients at high risk of hospital readmission

OBJECTIVES

We sought to determine whether a multidisciplinary outpatient management program decreases chronic heart failure (CHF) hospital readmissions and mortality over a six-month period.

BACKGROUND

Hospital admission for CHF is an important problem amenable to improved outpatient management.

METHODS

Two hundred patients hospitalized with CHF at increased risk of hospital readmission were randomized to a multidisciplinary program or usual care. A study cardiologist and a CHF nurse evaluated each patient and made recommendations to the patient's primary physician before randomization. The intervention team consisted of a cardiologist, a CHF nurse, a telephone nurse coordinator and the patient's primary physician. Contact with the patient was on a prespecified schedule. The CHF nurse followed an algorithm to adjust medications. Patients in the nonintervention group were followed as usual. The primary outcome was the composite of the number of CHF hospital admissions and deaths over six months, compared by using a log transformation t test by intention-to-treat analysis.

RESULTS

The median age of the study patients was 63.5 years, and 39.5% were women. There were 43 CHF hospital admissions and 7 deaths in the intervention group, as compared with 59 CHF hospital admissions and 13 deaths in the nonintervention group (p = 0.09). The quality-of-life score, percentage of patients on target vasodilator therapy and percentage of patients compliant with diet recommendations were significantly better in the intervention group. Cost per patient, in 1998 U.S. dollars, was similar in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates that a six-month, multidisciplinary approach to CHF management can improve important clinical outcomes at a similar cost in recently hospitalized high-risk patients with CHF.

Advanced practice nursing: parameters for successful integration

This article analyzes advanced practice nursing roles through a literature review and a pilot stakeholder survey in relation to five strategic areas: (1) definitions and scope of practice; (2) education, credentialing and regulation; (3) new roles in healthcare; (4) costs and benefits in health reform; and (5) implementation and relationships. The Canadian health services environment is best served by a multifaceted APN role, defined by a nursing paradigm that invokes collaborative relationships with physicians, and education and credentialing that is based on national standardization.

Hospital use and costs among patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy in the first prospective randomized amlodipine survival evaluation study

The incidence of hospitalizations, lengths of stay, and per-diem costs were determined for 421 patients (amlodipine, 209; placebo, 212) with nonischemic cardiomyopathy in the first Prospective Randomized Amlodipine Survival Evaluation (PRAISE) study to assess the impact of amlodipine on hospital use and to compare the costs of hospitalization with the cost of amlodipine treatment. Treatment with amlodipine versus placebo significantly delayed the mean (+/- SD) time to first hospitalization (447 +/- 26 d vs 315 +/- 18 d, respectively; P = 0.0139). Both treatment groups showed a similar number of hospital admissions per patient per year. The overall hospital length of stay was 1.17 days less per year with amlodipine than with placebo, at a cost of $1098 less per person per year although these differences were not statistically significant. Significantly fewer amlodipine patients were admitted for unexplained cardiac arrest (odds ratio, 0.235; P = 0.002) and ventricular arrhythmias (odds ratio, 0.497; P = 0.004). These findings are consistent with clinical reports from PRAISE of prolonged survival and a reduction in sudden cardiac death among patients with severe heart failure due to nonischemic heart disease. This analysis suggests that in patients with nonischemic cardiomyopathy, treatment with amlodipine can delay the time to hospitalization and may reduce the number of hospital admissions related to ventricular arrhythmias. The estimated reduction in hospital costs of $1098 per year would more than offset the amlodipine treatment cost of approximately $700 per year.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor antagonists in the treatment of heart failure caused by left ventricular systolic dysfunction

Activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) in left ventricular systolic dysfunction is a critically important determinant in the pathophysiologic processes that lead to progression of heart failure and sudden death. Angiotensin II, acting at the specific angiotensin receptor (AT1-R), activates a series of intracellular signaling sequences which are ultimately expressed within the cardiovascular system as vasoconstriction and associated vascular hypertrophy and remodeling. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition leads to increases in the vasodilatory peptides bradykinin and substance P and at least an initial reduction in angiotensin II concentrations. AT1-R blocking drugs prevent access of angiotensin II to the AT1-R and thus prevent cellular activation. ACE inhibitors have clearly been demonstrated through a large number of clinical trials to increase survival in congestive heart failure, primarily by reducing the rate of progression of left ventricular dilatation and decompensation. However, this beneficial effect diminishes over time. Preliminary short-term clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of AT1-R blocking drugs in the treatment of heart failure have suggested that they elicit similar hemodynamic and neuroendocrine effects as do the ACE inhibitors. The combination ACE inhibitors and AT1-R blocking drugs offer the theoretical advantage of increasing bradykinin while blocking the actions of angiotensin II, and thus possibly show a synergistic effect. Again, preliminary studies have yielded encouraging results that are difficult to interpret because neither ACE inhibitor nor the AT1-R blocking drug doses were titrated to tolerance. Pharmacological manipulation of the RAAS has led to better understanding of its role in heart failure and improved clinical outcomes.

Comparison of diltiazem and verapamil on rat microvascular permeability

Calcium channel antagonists are among the most widely prescribed cardiovascular drugs. Their benefit is limited by the side effect of edema, the microvascular mechanism of which is not known. We compared the local effect on edema formation in rat skin and skeletal muscle of two calcium channel antagonists, diltiazem and verapamil, and determined if the edema effect correlated with changes in microvascular flow. An increase in microvascular flow can potentiate edema formation by increasing microvascular hydrostatic pressure and the proportion of the bed that is perfused. Diltiazem, but not verapamil or control, injected s.c. in scrotal skin caused plasma albumin leakage visualized as local bluing of tissue in rats that had been pretreated with Evans blue dye systemically. Topographic studies using Monastral blue dye showed that in the underlying cremaster muscle, diltiazem increased leakage of dye particles not from capillaries but from postcapillary venules. The postcapillary venule is associated with inflammatory edema, suggesting a direct effect of diltiazem on endothelial permeability. The local injection of diltiazem also increased significantly (P < 0.05) plasma leakage quantified as the local accumulation of systemically injected 125I-radiolabeled albumin, from 14.5 +/- 2.0 and 6.9 +/- 1.0 microliters in control sites to 30.0 +/- 7.3 and 18.0 +/- 2.5 microliters in dorsal skin and abdominal rat skin, respectively. In contrast, verapamil at similar doses did not increase plasma albumin leakage significantly. At the doses that caused local skin edema, diltiazem had less effect on microvascular skin blood flow, measured by a laser Doppler flow probe, (12.6 +/- 5.3% at 15 min and 2.8 +/- 8.4% change at 30 min) than verapamil (39.0 +/- 7.3% at 15 min 30.0 +/- 6.7% change at 30 min, P < 0.01). The microvascular effects of these two calcium channel antagonists differ in that diltiazem had a significant effect on microvascular permeability whereas verapamil had a significant effect on microvascular blood flow.