Heart failure is a serious chronic condition where the heart cannot pump enough blood to support the needs of other organs in the body. The most common causes of heart failure include coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction (heart attack), congenital heart defects, or damaged heart valves.

Symptoms

Symptoms of heart failure include shortness of breath, extreme tiredness or no energy, dry cough, swelling in the ankles or feet, sudden weight gain and rapid heartbeat or palpitations. However, it is estimated that up to 30% of patients living with Heart Failure have no obvious symptoms.

It is estimated that 60 million people worldwide are affected by heart failure, but with the right medication and lifestyle, it can be managed.

Heart Failure Awareness Month

May 2023 #HighlightHeartFailure and Save Lives

The 2023 Global Heart Hub Heart Failure Awareness Month Campaign aims to educate the public on Heart Failure.
We seek to raise awareness of the signs, symptoms, and risk factors associated with heart failure, as well as the importance of early detection and effective management.

HF Awareness Campaign 2023

Our Mission: Raising Awareness of Heart Failure

The first patient council to be established by the Global Heart Hub was the Heart Failure Patient Council. This council is an alliance of patient organisations from across the globe, working with heart failure patients and their carers. A priority of the council is to raise awareness of heart failure, promote public and healthcare education and advocate for policy action in an insufficiently recognised and increasingly burdensome disease area.

Our Goals:

The Patient Council is united in the view that heart failure is poorly recognised and not well understood by both the general public and healthcare professionals.

There is global consensus that:

The early signs and symptoms of heart failure are often dismissed as normal ageing and thus overlooked as early presentation of the disease.
There are significant gaps in access to diagnostics in primary care, which result in inequities and delays in diagnosis. Heart failure diagnoses are frequently made late and often the patient has developed acute disease.
There is considerable variation and inequity of access to international best practice and specialist care, including access to heart failure nurse specialists (both in hospital and in the community).
Failure to recognise and treat heart failure appropriately is contributing to high hospital admission and re-admission rates, with consequential economic burden on healthcare systems and a huge impact on patients and carers.

Empower Webinar

Heart Failure – Your Guide to Your Journey

Global Heart Hub and Heart Failure in Lebanon, in collaboration with the American University of Beirut, University for Seniors, hosted this special webinar on August 23, 2023 for anyone looking for information and support around understanding, preventing, or living with heart failure.

Watch the recording (English)

Watch the recording (Arabic)

Achievements to date:

Launched the short, one-page summaries based on the GHH friendly guide “Heart Failure – Your Guide to Your Journey”. Friendly guide summaries are created in a way for people with heart failure and their caregivers to have all key information anytime anywhere, where the main friendly Guide document is for those who seek in-depth information with examples and guidance.
Received the Think Global Awards in the Life Science category for the impact that the International Heart Failure Patient and Caregiver Charter has achieved on a global level. The overall goal of this Charter is to support the development of optimal high-quality care and to promote its adoption internationally across all healthcare systems.
Launched the Heart Failure Guide, based on the European and American guidelines agreed by leading experts in heart failure as well as discussions with representatives of patient groups worldwide. The guide is designed to support individuals who have been newly diagnosed with heart failure, those who are living with the condition, and their caregivers.
Supported 4 localizations of the GHH Heart Failure Patient and Caregiver Charter in 2022 for Australian, USA, Brazilian and Lithuanian, which are endorsed by the national clinical societies.
Launched the International Heart Failure Patient and Caregiver Charter in June, 2022, which was translated into 15 languages and endorsed by over 30 patient organization affiliates from the Global Heart Hub Heart Failure Patient Council.
Activation and execution of the global annual Heart Failure Awareness Campaigns since May 2018. Learn more about the 2023 Heart Failure campaign here
Responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by developing information resources for use by patient organisations and participating in a global ‘Patient to Patient’ #JustGo campaign, encouraging those with cardiac symptoms to seek help despite fears of COVID-19 (2020 – 2021). Read more here
Hosting of annual patient organisation capacity building academies. The first academy was held in Galway, Ireland in 2015.
Global Heart Hub Heart Failure Patient Council Lead is a member of the Steering Committee of the Heart Failure Policy Network and actively engages in the activities around the policy by empowering Patient Advocates and Patient Organization Leaders to become a valuable stakeholder.
As part of the collaboration with The Health Policy Partnership, the Heart Failure Council has launched:
- Handbook of Multidisciplinary and Integrated Heart Failure Care (September 2018).
- Heart Failure Country Barometers – Europe (April 2018).
- The European Heart Failure Policy Network Toolkit (September 2015).
- Early Diagnosis patient education booklet (December 2015).
- European written declaration on heart failure campaign (December 2015).