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Designing and Implementing a Heart Team: Institutional Experiences Over the Past 10 Years
Mahrukh F Akram1, Andrea L Burgess2, Deeann Stickland2
1Division of Internal Medicine, Corewell Health/Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Insights
The heart team (HT) approach improves complex cardiac care, but operational guidelines are lacking. This review explores strategies to overcome barriers in implementing and measuring the success of heart teams for patient-centric treatment decisions.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Healthcare Management
- Clinical Operations
Background:
- The heart team (HT) is a multidisciplinary group for complex cardiac cases.
- Guidelines support HT, yet operational implementation data is scarce.
- Variability exists in how heart teams are currently structured and function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the development and operational strategies for heart teams (HT).
- To identify potential barriers hindering HT development and growth.
- To promote an integrated, patient-centric approach in complex cardiac care.
Main Methods:
- Literature review focusing on heart team operationalization.
- Analysis of strategies for HT implementation and success measurement.
- Identification of common challenges in establishing and scaling HT.
Main Results:
- Limited data exists on the practical design and success metrics for HT.
- Significant variability in HT implementation across institutions is observed.
- Operationalizing HT requires addressing specific developmental and growth barriers.
Conclusions:
- Standardized operational frameworks are needed for effective heart team implementation.
- Addressing identified barriers is crucial for optimizing HT function.
- A patient-centric HT approach is vital for managing complex coronary artery disease.
Abstract:
The heart team (HT) is a multidisciplinary team that performs a comprehensive review of patients with complex cardiac issues, collaborates on potential treatment options, and provides the patient with treatment recommendations. Despite strong guideline support and HT's ubiquitous presence, data on how to operationally design, implement, and measure the success of an HT remain limited. This, in turn, has led to wide variability in how HT are instituted. This review examines the development and strategy toward operationalizing HT to help identify potential barriers to HT development and growth. The HT itself is the culmination of a complex care process with the goal of adopting an integrated, patient-centric HT approach to treatment decisions in the care of patients with complex coronary artery disease.
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