Introduction
Heart disease is the leading single cause of death for men and women in Australia.
There are 685,000 people living with heart disease, approximately 50% will be experiencing
signs and symptoms of heart failure. This article aims to articulate the key advocacy
activities required to improve the provision of evidence-based secondary prevention
including cardiac rehabilitation and multidisciplinary chronic heart failure management
services.
Method
The Heart Foundation undertook an extensive consultation process with many experts,
policy makers, health and public health professionals through forums, evidence reviews
and working groups. A range of actions are required to improve access to secondary
prevention, but only those that the Heart Foundation could drive and support have
been included.
Results
The results identified three synergistic advocacy areas between heart failure and
cardiac rehabilitation to drive secondary prevention advocacy. These were data, policy
and people.
Discussion
The priority actions are discrete and tangible to progress rather than revisit established
evidence-based recommendations, and to support uptake and implementation at a national
and state/territory level. We must consider the current landscape within which secondary
prevention sits and identify the intersecting barriers and enablers that can be influenced.
There is no single solution or lever for change.
Conclusion
Best-practice management of heart disease can be achieved through a co-ordinated effort
to implement system change. Focus should be paid to a multi-faceted approach in the
key advocacy areas identified here – data, policy and people – as these will provide
benefit across the disease continuum, from secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation
through to heart failure management.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 17, 2015
Accepted:
February 5,
2015
Received in revised form:
January 14,
2015
Received:
September 10,
2014
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
