The latest newsletter from 20 August 2019
Thank you for your continued support of the OPTIMISE-HFpEF study. This is to update you on progress and and to make you aware of a potential research opportunity that you may be interested in.
The OPTIMISE-HFpEF study is approximately half way completed, many of you have returned for six month visits and some have even concluded their one year follow-up! We are truly grateful for your participation which has helped produce the following reports/reviews:
| A vignette about the study appeared on BBC Look East and BBC World News! This has helped highlight HFpEF to a wider audience. If you missed it, it can still be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyctWhQb58w A systematic review (a report that brings together the results of all studies that have been carried out around the world that report on outcomes for HFpEF patients enrolled in disease management programmes). The aim of the systematic review is to provide a comprehensive and unbiased summary of the research in this area which will soon appear in the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Journal. |
Coming soon…
| A report on the difficulty of diagnosing HFpEF, which many of you have highlighted is a problem, and the results of some of the interviews we have conducted with people who have HFpEF and the people who look after them (healthcare professionals and friends and family). We also hope to produce individualised activity summaries based on the data from the watches you have worn for us; I know many of you are keen to understand how active you are compared to public health recommendations. The work from all of these components will be pulled together as we enter the last phase of this study, the consensus work. The consensus work will involve synthesising everything we have learned, trying to understand it and then using this information to make recommendations for changes in the healthcare system. |
Lastly, many of you who have come back for follow-up have asked about treatments for HFpEF. As you know, OPTIMISE-HFpEF is not testing a new treatment or making recommendations for treatment, rather we are trying to understand more about what it is like to have HFpEF and how we can make changes to the whole system of care.
However, our colleagues at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford are looking at how a diabetes drug called empagliflozin, which is currently used to treat patients with diabetes, might help improve heart function and exercise ability in people with heart failure, WITH or WITHOUT diabetes. Information about the study, called EMPA-VISION, is enclosed with this letter. We wanted to make you aware of this study, you are under no obligation to take part and your decision will not affect your participation in the OPTIMISE-HFpEF study. If you are interested, would like to know more or have any questions, please fill in the reply slip and post it to the research team in Oxford in the envelope provided, who would be delighted to hear from you (talking to the researchers about the study does not mean you are committing to participate in the study).
We look forward to further collaboration with you and, again, thank you for your support!