[Heart failure: epidemiology, costs and healthcare programs in Italy]

Epidemiological data show an even greater prevalence of heart failure in the general population, in particular in elderly people, both in Italy and the other European countries. Patients admitted to hospital because of heart failure are commonly complex patients with relevant comorbidities and frequent readmissions. Hospital care accounts largely for the costs due to heart failure, whereas expenditure for therapies (drugs, devices and surgery) is less significant; non-medical and social costs represent also a relevant part of total costs. By far, the real challenge in the care of heart failure patients consists in the efforts to reduce hospital readmissions. A broad spectrum of interventions has been proposed for improving care of heart failure patients: multidisciplinary interventions involving physicians and nurses consisting of different modalities of transtelephonic monitoring have been demonstrated to be effective in reducing readmission rates and improving patient outcome. New technologies for remote monitoring with implantable devices (defibrillators and pacemakers) are becoming the standard of clinical practice in a great number of cardiology departments in our country. In addition, implantable devices for automatic and continuous hemodynamic monitoring are in an advanced phase of clinical evaluation. In conclusion, new modalities of care, centered on out-of-hospital assistance by means of interactive as well as automatic remote monitoring, are now available and seem to impact positively on the growing need for resources to be allocated to the care of heart failure patients.