Authors:

PHUONG Do Thi Nam¹ , HUAN Do Quang¹ , BAN Ha Ngoc¹ , DUNG Do Van² , M R Cowie¹ , HAO Do Thi¹ , THANH Nguyen Chi¹ , HANG Nguyen Thi Thuy¹ , DUC Nguyen Huu¹ , TIEN Nguyen Thi Tuyen¹ , LAN Dang Le Thuy¹ , TRANG Tran Kieu Diem¹ , DEP Le Thi¹ , THU Phan Thanh¹ , ¹Heart Institute - Ho Chi Minh city - Viet Nam , ²Medecine and Pharmacy University - Ho Chi Minh city - Viet Nam ,

Our heart institute in Vietnam taken part in the Optimize Heart Failure (OHF) program since October 2016. The aims of this program are to improve patients outcomes by improving heart failure (HF) patients’ awareness of their condition, and by optimizing HF treatment according to a locally-agreed guidelines (based on the ESC guidelines) with checklists to improve guideline adherence in hospital and at subsequent clinic review.

All HF patients with left ventricular ejection fraction < 50% hospitalized in our Institute have been included in the program since October 2016. The patients received education about diet, exercise, weight control and the detection of worsening HF symptoms at home, and HF treatments. All patients were reviewed at 2 months (M2) and 6 months (M6) for clinical signs, treatments and outcomes (readmission and death at 30 days, 60 days and 6 months after discharge). We also performed a telephone survey at 6 months after discharge to check their knowledge and their self-management on the four education topics. The start-up step (basic program) enrolled 401 patients (October 2016 and November 2017) and the full program has enrolled 211 patients to date (Jun 2018-November 2018). All patients were treated according to the same protocol but the full program also included reinforcement of patient education and practitioner guideline adherence.

Data will be presented to show our real word evidence: an improvement of knowledge and practice of HF patients in all of the 4 education themes and an improvement in pharmaceutical prescription rate (including renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors, beta-blockers, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, and ivabradine for HF patients with NYHA II-IV and sinus rhythm). The rate of readmission and the mortality at 30 days and at 60 days after discharge were also improved with the full program compared with the basic program.

Conclusion: Pharmaceutical guideline adherence has been improved in Vietnam by using simple checklists and regular hospital educational meetings for healthcare professionals. Educational reinforcement helps patients retain information and to follow lifestyle and medical advice. The OHF Care Program is simple, inexpensive, and easy to implement in our country, and may well be easy to implement in other developing countries.