This review highlights the need for improved national strategies to optimize heart failure management and translate clinical trial benefits into real-world practice in Portugal.
May warrant targeted Portuguese HF quality initiatives; leaves open which strategies best close the trial-to-practice gap.
The prevalence of heart failure is increasing all over the world. It is a common and growing public health problem in Portugal as in many other European countries. This article provides a review of health service organization and current heart failure management in Portugal, discusses primary care and ward practices in different hospitals and reports on the use of proven standard therapies for the treatment of heart failure in the community. Despite major advances in diagnosis and treatment, heart failure is only satisfactorily managed. Furthermore efforts are necessary before the beneficial effects observed in trials have a real impact in clinical practice. A broader view and priority for the management of this syndrome on a national level are needed to improve the quality of heart failure care in Portugal.
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Fonseca et al. (2002) studied this question.
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