Heart failure: across the interface and beyond

The initiatives described below have developed in aparticular way, reflecting the local environment includingits history, and recent clinical advances and imperatives in the field of heart failure. These initiatives are part of a much broader range of innovations, some of which are at an early stage in their development. Others have been in place for many years reflecting a longstanding local commitment to address the issues of consistency and continuity of optimal cardiovascular care, research and education, across primary, secondary and tertiary care domains in and around the Whit-tington Hospital, London (and more recently the Whittington University College London campus). Only through an understanding of the local context will it be possible for others to assess the applicability of the described models to their own practice. The Whittington Hos-pital provides cardiovascular care for a local population of some 220–240,000 people for whom Camden and Islington,