The Wider Considerations in Closing Chronic Disease Gaps - Focus on Heart Failure and Implementation

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Research
• Health Services Research
• Implementation Science

Background:

• Heart failure (HF) is a predominant chronic disease with significant overlaps in research and care with general chronic diseases.
• The overarching goal in chronic disease and HF research is optimizing patient outcomes while maximizing cost-effectiveness.
• Clinical translation of research findings is often hindered by patient-related variables and identified gaps in screening, self-management, and patient-reported outcomes (PRO).

Approach:

• A preliminary literature review identified a taxonomy for cardiovascular research.
• A review of published literature examined the translation of cardiovascular research studies into clinical practice.
• The study discusses differences in traditional research, focusing on screening, mixed methods, and chronic disease models of care.

Key Points:

• Six steps are proposed to facilitate research translation: research design, application (routine and challenges), transforming research to the translational level, funding and infrastructure, establishing Clinical Centres of Research Excellence (CCRE) and collaboration, and governance and cost-effectiveness.
• Implementation research, vital for linking findings to improved patient outcomes, is identified as a neglected area requiring complex skills.
• The document provides arguments for a framework for health services and models of care to guide future consensus.

Conclusions:

• Maximizing translational impacts for chronic disease research, particularly in a heart failure context, requires addressing implementation research challenges.
• Bridging the identified gaps in screening, self-management, and PRO is essential for effective clinical translation.
• Developing a robust framework for health services and models of care is a prerequisite for advancing chronic disease and HF research translation.