The purpose of the Center for the Study of the Treatment of Heart Failure, with administrative headquarters at the Department of Medical Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, is to promote research on pathogenetic mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.
Heart failure is currently the most important cause of hospitalization in the adult population of Western nations and one of the main causes of national health care costs. Although the treatment has improved and, consequently, the prognosis of outpatients with chronic heart failure due to cardiac systolic dysfunction, prognosis and treatment remain largely unsatisfactory, without substantial improvements in recent decades, in other important groups of patients: those hospitalized for worsening heart failure and those with heart failure and conserved systolic function. Therefore, there is an extreme need to improve our knowledge of the pathophysiology, diagnosis and characterization of patients suffering from heart failure and to improve the treatment of this condition.
The activity of the Center includes the following initiatives:
- Realization of research aimed at the study of heart failure with particular regard to its pathogenic mechanisms, procedures for diagnostic evaluation and / or
prognostic analysis of patients, to assess the efficacy of new treatments, including phase I and II studies and collaboration in phase III studies. - Promotion and organization of registries and observational and drug-epidemiological studies aimed at evaluating the treatment and response modalities of patients suffering from various forms of heart failure, including specific subclasses, such as patients with concomitant ischemic heart disease, with nephropathy, bronchopneumopathies, with preserved cardiac systolic function, hospitalized for heart failure, with primary pulmonary arterial hypertension
- Research aimed at improving the follow-up and treatment of patients recently hospitalized for heart failure with the implementation of new methods of remote monitoring of vital parameters, adoption of new educational systems, assessment of compliance to therapy
Organization of seminars, updating activities and national and international study conferences, related to the research purposes of the Center. - Organization of workshops related to therapeutic objectives, implementation of new study protocols, therapy evaluation methods
- Promotion and support of patient associations, their families, interested doctors, aimed at raising awareness about the problems related to heart failure and chronic diseases in general