TY - JOUR T1 - FASTer diagnosis: Time to BEAT heart failure JF - BJGP Open JO - BJGP Open DO - 10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0006 SP - BJGPO.2021.0006 AU - Clare J Taylor AU - Nick Hartshorne-Evans AU - Duwarakan Satchithananda AU - FD Richard Hobbs Y1 - 2021/04/28 UR - http://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2021/04/21/BJGPO.2021.0006.abstract N2 - Heart failure (HF) is common and costly.1 Around 26 million people are living with HF globally, and a substantial proportion of healthcare budgets is spent on HF services.2 Large trials have established the clinical and cost-effectiveness of drug and device therapies which have symptomatic and prognostic benefit.3 However, HF survival rates have not improved substantially in the last two decades.4 Timely diagnosis is important to allow initiation of treatments which can improve outcome. Lack of HF awareness, barriers in the diagnostic pathway, suboptimal use of HF medications, and a low number of HF nurse specialists are just some factors that may have contributed to lack of progress over time.5 In this article, we explain the importance of diagnosing HF, highlight current challenges for primary care, and propose a novel approach for raising awareness of HF amongst patients, carers, and GPs.Importance of diagnosisGuidelines recommend that people with symptoms suggestive of HF presenting to primary care have a natriuretic peptide test, and referral for imaging and specialist review if the level is raised.3 However, a recent report by the British Heart Foundation highlighted that almost 80% of patients are diagnosed on emergency hospital admission, and called for earlier diagnosis in primary care.5 HF is a very treatable condition once diagnosed. It is categorised according to left ventricular ejection fraction: HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and this distinction determines the most appropriate management pathway. There is a substantial evidence … ER -