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The 19th San Diego Heart Failure Symposium for Primary Care and Internal Medicine Physicians will present a series of lectures, challenging cases and interactive discussions that cover major changes in heart failure management that have emerged over the past year. The agenda critically evaluates new strategies and provides guidance for when and how they should be incorporated into practice. The topics included cover areas extending from treating risk factors to prevent heart failure, use of devices for detecting and treating heart failure and novel approaches for providing care. Topics of particular interest include use of SGLT2 and PCSK9 inhibitors, management of pulmonary arterial hypertension, advantages of the wearable cardioverter defibrillator, role of sacubitril-valsartan and ivabradine therapy, management of atrial fibrillation, update on biomarkers, treatment of HFpEF, new ways to detect and treat amyloidosis, unusual causes of heart failure, how and when to use NOAC’s, role of remoting monitoring, advances in LVAD therapy and strategies for improving outcomes after a heart failure hospitalization. The 19th Annual San Diego Heart Failure Symposium for Primary Care and Internal Medicine Physicians will continue the tradition of providing cutting edge information about heart failure by experts in the field in a format that enhances adaption into clinical practice.

SYMPOSIUM OBJECTIVES
At the conclusion of this program, the participant should be able to:
1. Summarize current and emerging treatments available for preventing and treating heart failure and provide information to help in the selection of the most effective choices in individual patients.
2. Review strategies for implementing medical and device therapies that will lead to improved outcomes in heart failure patients.
3. Define how specific populations including minorities, women and the elderly respond to various approaches to treating risk factors and heart failure.

NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Over five million Americans (two percent of the U.S.) are living with heart failure (HF). An estimated 670,000 new cases of HF are diagnosed each year and this condition is a major cause of morbidity and mortality (80% of men and 70% of women less than 65 years of age who have HF will die within 8 years) and is the number one cause of hospitalizations of the elderly in the U.S. HF is common, but unrecognized and often misdiagnosed. Recent data have shown that drugs and devices that have proven beneficial and are recommended in recent practice guidelines, (HFSA 2010 update of practice guidelines Lindelfield J et al J Cardiac Failure 2010:16; 475) are underutilized (Fonarow GC et al. Circulation 2010;122:585).

Recent information also suggests a significant individual variability in conformity to quality-of-care indicators and clinical outcome of patients with HF and a substantial gap in overall performance. In addition according to a study analyzing the quality of health care in the United States on average, patients with heart failure received the recommended quality of care only 64% of the time (heart failure performance measurement set by the ACC/AHA 2010).

Despite important advances in treatment, patients with HF continue to experience unacceptably high rates of morbidity and mortality. This along with the enormous cost of caring for a growing number of HF patients has resulted in increased scrutiny of existing and emerging therapies.

TARGET AUDIENCE
This course is designed for cardiologists, internists, primary care physicians, nurses, PA’s, PharmD’s and all other allied healthcare professionals with an interest in heart failure.