Author: Jessica Casley

Childhood-onset Heart Disease: Announcing a Blueprint for Optimising Care in Australia
The Australian National Standards of Care for Childhood-onset Heart Disease (CoHD) were launched in early February 2024, and the full set of Standards are now published in Heart, Lung and Circulation. Led by Sholler and Selbie, the authorship group of the Standards’ aim is to enable all Australian patients, families and carers affected by CoHD to “live their best and healthiest lives”. Among the 12 standards, transition to adult care, mental health and psychological care, and neurodevelopmental and neurocognitive care, are highlighted for special mention in an invited linked Editorial by Celermajer. Overall, these National Standards of Care present a new paradigm in health care, whereby healthcare professionals, governments and consumers work together to optimise patient care. Further, Celermajer suggests that the Standards could evolve as a “living document” to address further relevant topics, such as prevention of acquired heart disease.
https://www.heartlungcirc.org/article/S1443-9506(23)04355-X/fulltext
https://www.heartlungcirc.org/article/S1443-9506(24)00045-3/fulltext

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Not Such a Rare Disease?
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)—a primary genetic disorder characterised by progressive left ventricular hypertrophy and sudden death—may not be a rare disease, suggest Playford and colleagues. In a comprehensive, 2001-2019 screen of more than 300,000 echocardiographic reports in the National Echo Database Australia (NEDA), they found that about 3% of men and 1.7% of women met criteria for phenotypical HCM; that is, about 17 men and 8 women per 10,000 population, aged ≤ 50 years. Given that HCM is likely to be more common than previously prescribed, seeking a definitive diagnosis early to reduce the risk of developing heart failure early or dying prematurely seems warranted, particularly with expanding treatment options already here or on the horizon.
https://www.heartlungcirc.org/article/S1443-9506(23)04420-7/fulltext

Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy: Can Medicare Benefits Criteria Keep up to the Pace?
There is a mismatch between evidence-based international recommendations and current Australian Medicare Benefits Schedule criteria for cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), say Roccisano and colleagues. In a Letter to the Editor, they reported that of 100 consecutive patients who underwent CRT implantation at a single tertiary hospital, just over half fulfilled the Medicare Benefits Schedule criteria for CRT. However, those who did not meet the MBS criteria did have clinical criteria in line with European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recommendations, including in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (<40%). They say the ESC criteria do fulfil cost-effectiveness and quality-of-life improvement standards, and hope that Medicare can contemporaneously evolve to promote consistent access to CRT throughout the Australian healthcare system.
https://www.heartlungcirc.org/article/S1443-9506(23)04466-9/fulltext

Compiled by Dr Ann Gregory, Commissioning Editor, Heart, Lung and Circulation