#BeatHeartFailure: Top doctors and government officials shed light on the burden of Heart Failure in India & way forward to a heart failure registry

The world is dealing with an unprecedented task of battling the Coronavirus pandemic. People have been trying their best to avoid the spread of the virus by taking necessary precautions. However, due to Covid-19, other illnesses and health conditions have taken a backseat. One such condition is the underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed issue of Heart Failure.Did you know that India carries 40% of the global heart failure burden, which is only worsening with increasing instances of diabetes and hypertension? The disease is claiming more lives than cancer. The underdiagnosed and misdiagnosed issue of Heart Failure has led to an increased number of deaths with every passing year.
To build awareness around Heart Failure, The Times of India launched #BeatHeartFailure in partnership with Novartis in 2019. The initiative has successfully reached lakhs of people and has specifically engaged more than 6.5 lakh people to take the symptom checker – a tool that helps them understand the symptoms of Heart Failure. The third leg of the #BeatHeartFailure virtual series, conducted on November 5, had top doctors and concerned government officials from the state of Gujarat in a discussion, engaged through a webinar on the need to have effective diagnostics as well as a centralised registry that captures all patient data to monitor progress and status.
The panellists included Dr Jayanti S. Ravi, IAS, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Gujarat; Jai Prakash Shivahare, Commissioner of Health & Medical Services, Medical Education & Research, Govt. of Gujarat; Dr Tejas Patel, Padma Shri Awardee, Founder & Chief Interventional Cardiologist, Apex Heart Institute, Ahmedabad; Dr Anil R. Jain, Cardiac Surgeon & Founder, EPIC Hospital, Ahmedabad; Dr Sibasis Sahoo, Professor (Cardiology), UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology & Research Centre, Ahmedabad; Dr Kamal Sharma, Sr. Interventional Cardiologist, Apollo Hospitals, UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology; Asst. Prof. Cardiology at B J Medical College. The informative webinar helped spread awareness and touched essential topics like:
1. Importance of spreading awareness around Heart Failure and its symptoms
2. The burden of Heart Failure in India
3. Difference between Heart Attacks and Heart Failure (HF) and the need to understand this
4. Understanding the relationship between Heart Failure, diabetes and hypertension
5. COVID-19 and its impact on Heart Failure management by patients/ prospective patients
6. Way forward for an effective diagnostic system and a national registry to capture data of people for better disease management
Promita Chatterji, the moderator of the webinar, started the discussion by bursting misconceptions about heart failure and introducing the magnitude of the rising heart problems in India. Dr Tejas Patel joined her in the conversation by explaining the difference between a heart failure and heart attack. A heart attack is a sudden event, whereas, a heart failure is a gradual process with heart muscles weakening over time. “One out of four men suffering from a heart attack will develop heart failure in the latter part of life, and for every two women suffering from a heart attack, one woman will suffer from heart failure,” a shocking statistic revealed by Dr Patel.
Taking the conversation forward, Jai Prakash Shivahare, Commissioner of Health, Govt. of Gujarat shed light on the government being aware of the problem. Shivahare also spoke about the steps that are being taken to combat heart failure issues in India. “Government’s major focus is on early detection of diabetes, hypertension and certain types of cancer. We are trying to reach out to the community for preventive aspects also as a part of Ayushman Bharat, an initiative by the Government of India to start health and wellness centres,” said Mr Shivahare.
Dr Jayanti S. Ravi, IAS, Principal Secretary, Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of Gujarat stressed on the importance of non-communicable diseases, including conditions that lead to heart failure. “Apart from the primary health centres, we have 9000 plus sub-centres in Gujarat alone. Each centre has 12 service buckets including 5 of them for non-communicable diseases,” said Jayanti.
To reach the root of the problem and understand the prevalence of the disease, proper research and data collection become extremely important. “Gujarat must have its own heart failure registry. Without a proper registry, it’s difficult to ascertain the magnitude of the problem,” said Dr Patel. “The Trivendrum Heart Failure Registry was the first such initiative in the country. Different countries use different scoring systems for identification of potential patients, and we can develop our own system which is most practical and implementable,” added Dr Anil R. Jain, Cardiac Surgeon & Founder, EPIC Hospital, Ahmedabad. Both officials Ravi and Shivahare welcomed the idea and said that they would seek help from the subject experts to take it further.
The burden of heart failure in India is high, and the way forward to a cost-effective diagnostic system is the detection of heart failure at an early stage which is more focused towards spreading awareness about the initial symptoms. “There are a few things that we have to make compulsory if we want to diagnose heart failure at an early stage and come to a point where we can prevent it. The most important thing is that the government should put out symptoms like breathlessness, chest pain, high blood pressure or diabetes. We have to create a scoring system that is called Heart Failure Scoring System. If somebody fits into that score, he can report to the local health care system”, said Dr Jain.
Talking about the national registry to capture data of people for better disease management, Dr Sibasis Sahoo, Professor (Cardiology), UN Mehta Institute of Cardiology & Research Centre, Ahmedabad stressed on a critical issue. The issue is that we need to develop proper infrastructure in rural parts that will decrease the unnecessary cost of travelling and can make sure that treatment can be done in the rural areas itself. He also spoke about the importance of increasing financial aid for rural India in the form of insurance and other facilities for the poor.
With the ongoing challenge of fighting COVID-19, heart problems have been ignored, which not only leads to more severe issues but also acts as an agent to the already prevailing COVID-19 disease. “Covid-19 patients are at increased risk of heart failure due to presence of ACE2 receptors in the heart. The pandemic has resulted in late presentation of disease”, said Dr Kamal Sharma. “Indian studies have also found out that the mental, emotional and physical stress of COVID-19 leads to weakening of the heart. This is often overlooked, undertreated and under-diagnosed. The thought of breathlessness from COVID-19 could be actually of the heart”, added Dr Sharma.
Keeping each other’s points in mind, the panellists concluded by taking suggestions from fellow doctors and officials to streamline the process further and strengthen the system by early detection and prevention to #BeatHeartFailure. Even though heart failure is a chronic disease, it can still be managed effectively if it is not taken lightly, and the symptoms are detected at an early stage. You can also take a heart failure symptom checker test to know more about your condition. To hear the doctors and experts speak, click here.
Disclaimer: This article has been produced on behalf of Beat Heart Failure by Times Internet’s Spotlight team.