The role of a clinical pharmacist in self-care in heart failure

Heart Failure (HF) is a serious problem of today’s society and one of the most common chronic diseases associated with high morbidity and mortality rates as well as intensive utilisation of human, infrastructure and financial resources of healthcare system. Therapeutic strategies should therefore include health status monitoring starting at hospital discharge, throughout lifelong pharmacotherapy optimalisation and environmental risk factors modification. Self-care in heart failure offers significant strategic potential for releasing healthcare system resources and enabling effective cost consumption. Pharmacist involvement in heart-failure self-care including pharmacotherapy optimalisation, medicines reconciliation and counselling translates to increased effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and resources’ utilisation. Self-care promotion in heart-failure should be a strategic priority and incorporation of it into routine healthcare in heart failure should be implemented simultaneously along with provision of pharmacotherapy. Synergistic approach will result in decreased rate of hospitalisation and increased quality of life of patient with heart failure.