[Patient education in heart failure]

Heart failure is a chronic disease that leads to disabling symptoms and recurrent hospitalizations, mainly for acute heart failure episodes, having a major impact on patients' quality of life. An effective treatment is available but not always accessible, for miscellaneous reasons including difficulties in understanding the prescription and in reaching guideline-directed medical therapies to the optimal tolerated dose.Patient education is a key component of heart failure management, enabling patients to develop individual skills in self-monitoring acute heart failure symptoms and to improve their compliance to treatment, dietary and physical activity. The primary objective of patient education is to encourage patients' empowerment and improve their quality of life. These objectives defined by the care team need to be modulated to patients' expectations, specific needs and level of health literacy, as patients are mainly elderly and exposed to several chronic diseases.The heart failure care pathway is changing with the emerging of new methods such as telemonitoring and specialized nurses. Thus, it is crucial to maintain patient education as a major component of patient care.