Heart failure is a condition where the heart cannot pump blood around the body as well as it should. Having heart failure can put patients at risk of other conditions such as pulmonary hypertension (raised blood pressure in the lungs), sudden cardiac arrest and damage to their liver or kidneys – so it is important patients receive timely treatment to manage the condition (1).
In the UK, heart failure affects approximately 920,000 people with 200,000 new cases annually (2)(3). Despite 40% of patients experiencing symptoms that could have prompted earlier assessment in primary care, 80% of heart failure cases are currently identified and diagnosed following an emergency admission to the hospital, resulting in poorer patient outcomes and increased pressure on hospital services. Across the NHS, heart failure accounts for approximately 100,000 admissions and around one million inpatient bed days each year (4)(5). Around half of those diagnosed with heart failure in the UK die within five years of their diagnosis (6).
Health Innovation East is supporting a number of initiatives to detect and treat people with heart failure in the East of England – including building recognition among the community and providing further training to healthcare professionals.
Spreading awareness in the community
Raising awareness of heart failure and its symptoms among under-served communities and those at highest risk offers a significant opportunity to improve proactive management within primary and community care settings.
Building on the success of community engagement events delivered by One Vision during Wave 1 of the Innovation for Healthcare Inequalities Programme (InHIP), Health Innovation East awarded additional grant funding to support further community education and engagement activities and provided project management support throughout delivery.
Delivered between October 2025 and February 2026, these events aimed to increase awareness of the signs and symptoms of heart failure. Targeted, opportunistic screening was also offered to identify undiagnosed hypertension (high blood pressure) and atrial fibrillation (AF), an irregular heart rhythm. For blood pressure screening, testing was carried out using a standard blood pressure cuff, while AF detection was carried out using KardiaMobile – a NICE-recommended technology linked to a smart phone app that allows individuals to check their heart rhythm.
One Vision is a Watford-based charity, supporting ethnically diverse and faith-based communities. It provides a trusted, culturally sensitive link between faith communities and NHS partners to promote preventative healthcare. Working with faith leaders, community champions and trained volunteers, One Vision delivers health education and NHS signposting through accessible, community-based outreach.
In partnership with Health Innovation East, One Vision raised heart failure awareness among under-served and high-risk groups across Hertfordshire. Using a co-production approach and the BEAT HF heart failure symptoms acronym, they developed culturally appropriate resources and shared key messages through trusted communicators in safe community spaces.
Developed by Pumping Marvellous, the BEAT acronym identifies key symptoms of heart failure to encourage patients to seek medical attention. Each of these symptoms on their own may not indicate heart failure, but a combination of these symptoms would suggest it is time to discuss with a GP. The quicker heart failure is diagnosed, the sooner treatment can begin, and patient quality of life and prognosis can be improved.
B – breathlessness
E – exhaustion
A – ankle swelling
T – time to speak to your GP or time for a simple blood test (depending on setting)
Educating healthcare professionals
To support healthcare professionals across the East of England to improve patient care and outcomes in heart failure, a series of topical webinars were delivered between June and November 2025. The webinars were provided as part of the Health Innovation East heart failure programme, with the sessions led by heart failure specialists.
Topics included: making the best use of echo in primary care; recognising the signs and symptoms of heart failure; managing heart failure across the spectrum – practical tips for primary care; implementing heart failure guidelines – modern heart failure management; and coding and disease register validation in primary care.
Spreading awareness in the community
To understand the impact of the community engagement events in raising awareness of heart failure symptoms, evaluative feedback was gathered through an electronic survey, translated into five languages to ensure accessibility and inclusion. The feedback illustrated how the combination of building trust and meeting people in their community helped to deliver demonstrable real-world impact.
Across four bespoke community events and engagement sessions, held in both faith-based and non-faith-based venues in South Hertfordshire, we connected with people who are often underserved by traditional health services. In total, 365 individuals attended, the majority of whom were women (57%), with the largest age group being 45–54 years old (28%).
Crucially, the sessions did more than raise awareness – they prompted action. 34 people were signposted to their GP for follow-up appointments after identifying potential symptoms of heart failure, high blood pressure and AF – enabling earlier investigation and support.
“This screening gave me the awareness and support I didn’t know I needed. I’ve always been health-conscious and never expected this. Please bring this to more community events.”
– Tamil woman, age 39 (signposted to primary care following a high blood pressure reading at an event)
These events demonstrated how community-led, culturally informed health engagement can drive early identification, empower individuals, and build trust between communities and the health system. Discussion around heart failure has become the norm at these events and CVD (cardiovascular disease) monitoring continues to take place at the request of the people attending these events.
What stands out most is your ability to bridge systems with communities, ensuring that innovation is not done to people, but with people. This is how we build trust, deliver sustainable change, and truly move towards a more equitable health system for all.
Educating healthcare professionals
A total of 293 participants attended the webinars throughout the training series. Slides and recordings were shared with all attendees, as well as with those who registered but were unable to attend the live sessions, extending the reach of the programme beyond the sessions themselves.
The webinars attracted a diverse cross-section of healthcare professionals, including GPs, pharmacists, nurses and paramedics, demonstrating engagement from across the healthcare system. By reaching professionals across different parts of the healthcare system, the programme has helped ensure that knowledge is shared more widely, supporting more informed conversations with patients and contributing to more coordinated care across services.
Health Innovation East will continue to prioritise heart health to help tackle health inequalities and improve health in the region.
At Health Innovation East we are working to improve the detection and management of cardiovascular disease. Access a suite of training sessions and resources, designed for health care professionals, in support of this aim, here
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