Advanced Heart Failure

Overview

Nearly 6-million Americans suffer from heart failure, and the incidence is increasing. Physicians diagnose up to 700,000 new cases each year in the United States, and the number of deaths has more than doubled since 1979. This increase in both incidence and mortality makes heart failure one of the only cardiovascular diseases that is on the rise. In addition to its personal toll, the financial burden of heart failure is staggering; an estimated $8 billion-to-$15 billion is spent annually on hospitalizations for heart failure, twice the amount spent for all forms of cancer combined. The Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and UCLA Heart Transplant Center have led the way over the past two decades to develop new medical therapies, devices and disease-management strategies for heart failure. These advances significantly improve quality of life for patients, reduce their risk for hospitalization and improve their chances for survival.

The UCLA Advanced Heart Failure Program is an integrated service dedicated to providing attending-level phone consultation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They have over the last 2 years been re-organized in the integrated Advanced Heart Failure Program with the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center, Mechanical Circulatory Support Center and Heart Transplant Center.

The referring physician will speak to the attending cardiologist on-call within five minutes to facilitate the prompt and appropriate evaluation and care of the patient.

The Advanced Heart Failure Program provides direct access to the team responsible for the management of all aspects of advanced heart failure, including inpatient and outpatient NYHA Class III and IV patients with heart failure. The team also accepts referrals of patients for heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support (VAD) implantation.

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