Figures of the Heart Failure Association (HFA): Prof. Dr. Tiny Jaarsma, HFA Board Member (2018–2020), Coordinator Patient Care: Management and Delivery Committee and Co-Chair HFA Task Force on Palliative Care

Prof. Dr. Tiny Jaarsma has been around in the Heart Failure Association (HFA) for some time and has been active in several activities in the Association and in the journals of HFA. She currently is a full member of the HFA board and leading the HFA Committee called ‘Patient care: management and delivery’, co-chairing the HFA Task Force on Palliative Care, and member of the core-group of the HeartFailureMatters.org website. She is a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Heart Failure and associate editor of ESC Heart Failure. In addition to her dedication to HFA, she is active in other activities in the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), for example as the editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing and in the Association of Cardiovascular Nurses and Allied Professionals (ACNAP).1 Prof. Dr. Tiny Jaarsma is a full professor in nursing science at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Linköping (Sweden) and a professor in cardiovascular chronic care at the University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands). Her research focuses on the consequences of chronic heart failure for patients and their families and on developing and testing interventions to enhance their self-care. Her research has been published in over 400 publications ranging from short practical communications, book chapters to scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals. Tiny Jaarsma was trained as a nurse in Groningen and she has worked with cardiac patients since 1988, on the cardiology ward and in the Heart Failure clinic. She received her masters degree from the University of Maastricht in 1992, as part of a nurse fellowship of the Netherlands Heart Foundation. She studied for 6 months at the University of California in Los Angeles in 1993 with Prof. Dracup and completed her PhD degree in 1999 at Maastricht University, with a thesis entitled “Heart failure: nurses' care”. Since then she has led several research groups with researchers from a variety of disciplines, including nursing, medicine, occupational therapy and health education. One of her main scientific achievements is the design, management and publication of a multicentre randomized trial evaluating disease management in patients with heart failure, the so-called COACH study (Coordinating Study Evaluating Outcomes of Advising and Counseling in Heart Failure).2 Another major achievement has been the integration of current scientific knowledge in the Middle Range Theory of Self-care in Chronic Illness,3 developed with colleagues from the US and Sweden as well as the development of the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale that is currently translated into 21 languages.4 The scale is used in clinical trials to evaluate the effect of nursing interventions as well as used and tested in nursing practice to improve the quality of patient education by nurses. Currently she is the principal investigator of the ‘HF-WII’ study,5 a randomized clinical trial on the effect of exergaming to increase physical activity in patients with heart failure. Her other research is aimed at improving communication between health care providers and patients regarding end-of-life issues (TALK-HF).6 Tiny is a fellow of the ESC and HFA and also of the American Heart Association (AHA), the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and the European Academy of Nursing (EANS). Together with Prof. Anna Strömberg she is currently leading a research programme called ICT for self-care. That programme entails several innovative research projects, such as for example a tele-yoga project, development of exergaming to improve exercise and using a co-design approach to work with patients towards optimal symptom detection. T: During a career I have met a lot of inspiring people. For me Prof. Kathy Dracup has been key to choosing a scientific career in cardiovascular nursing. By her professional attitude, that was always based on high levels of expertise and quality, she opened my eyes to the importance of multidisciplinary research. In addition to a lot of academic skills, she taught me the importance of being generous – generous to clinical and research colleagues, to students and your patients. T: I was awarded the title of ‘Distinguished Scientist of AHA’ in 2016, a honour that until that date had never given to any European Nurse Scientist. The AHA's distinguished scientists are a prominent group of scientists and clinicians whose work has advanced the understanding of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Every year 5–6 persons are selected to be awarded. To receive this award for my contribution to science was humbling for me. This award was also recognition for the contribution of nursing to the scientific knowledge base in the broad field of cardiology. Since the beginning of my research career in 1990, I have been very motivated to contribute significantly to the evidence base of patient care by initiating and performing research and implementing its findings. Based on this research, institutions have implemented disease management and thereby significantly improved the care and self-care of cardiac patients. The award ‘Distinguished Scientist of AHA’ really acknowledged my research, funded by public and governmental sources, that also has created an opportunity to build research capacity in the Netherlands and Sweden (and other European countries) by increasing the number of nurses with a PhD. T: The HFA is multidisciplinary, innovative and strong association with a large drive to advance HF care. I have had the honour to be in the first HFA board lead by Prof. Brutsaert and since that time the HFA has grown stronger and been leading important developments in the field. For example, guidance documents that influence practice have been developed,7 facts and numbers that help us to form adequate research questions8, 9 and curricula that help clinicians to deliver high quality care are made available. The nurse curriculum has been developed and was also updated.10 It is a wonderful opportunity to represent nursing in the HFA board. The representation of nurses in the HFA is vital for a comprehensive advancement of heart failure care. In a lot of HFA activities nurses can contribute immensely and that is how I see my current role: to raise the voice of nurses, not only in the activities of HFA, but also in general in heart failure care. T: It is a challenge to be short on this question. There are so many activities in the HFA now that I do not know where to start. However, I guess the readers keep themselves updated via the website, so I will not linger on. I would like to mention three things that I think are ‘extra’ promising. First, as I mentioned the HFA is a strong Association with a broad and multidisciplinary view. I see a promising development that webinars, workshops, conferences and papers address the broad range of science from basic science to implementation of effective interventions into practice (from bench to bedside). For this we need an increased engagement of all professionals in health care, so I challenge all readers with different backgrounds to be involved in the activities of HFA. A second important development is the use of social media and new ways of communication with our peers and patients. I have great expectations of heartfailurematters.org, our patient website that now is translated into many languages, making it accessible for heart failure patients and their carers in across the world.11 A third important development is that HFA broadens the view to include patients and caregivers in activities. In this way we can even make an even larger impact.12 Andrew J.S. Coats IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy ajscoats@aol.com