Telemedicine for the treatment of heart failure: new opportunities after COVID-19
Maria Giulia Bellicini, Francesca Pia D’Altilia, Cristina Gussago, Marianna Adamo, Carlo Lombardi, Daniela Tomasoni, Riccardo M. Inciardi, Marco Metra, Matteo Pagnesi
Abstract
ABSTRACT: During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the epidemiology of heart failure significantly changed with reduced access to health system resources and a worsening of patients' outcome. Understanding the causes of these phenomena could be important to refine the management of heart failure during and after the pandemic. Telemedicine was associated with an improvement in heart failure outcomes in several studies; therefore, it may help in refining the out-of-hospital care of heart failure. In this review, the authors describe the changes in heart failure epidemiology during the COVID-19 pandemic; analyse available evidence on use and benefit of telemedicine during the pandemic and prepandemic periods; and discuss approaches to optimize the home-based or outpatient heart failure management in the future, beyond the pandemic.