Randomized, Controlled Evaluation of Short- and Long-Term Benefits of Heart Failure Disease Management Within a Diverse Provider Network

Background—Several trials support the usefulness of disease management (DM) for improving clinical outcomes in heart failure (HF). Most of these studies are limited by small sample size; absence of concurrent, randomized controls; limited follow-up; restriction to urban academic centers; and low baseline use of effective medications. Methods and Results—We performed a prospective, randomized assessment of the effectiveness of HF DM delivered for 90 days across a diverse provider network in a heterogeneous population of 200 patients with high baseline use of approved HF pharmacotherapy. During a 90-day follow-up, patients randomized to DM experienced fewer hospital-izations for HF [primary end point, 0.550.15 per patient-year alive versus 1.140.22 per patient-year alive in control subjects; relative risk (RR), 0.48, P0.027]. Intervention patients experienced reductions in hospital days related to a primary diagnosis of HF (4.30.4 versus 7.80.6 days hospitalized per patient-year; RR, 0.54; P0.001), cardiovascular hospitalizations (0.810.19 versus 1.430.24 per patient-year alive; RR, 0.57; P0.043), and days in hospital per patient-year alive for cardiovascular cause (RR, 0.64; P0.001). Intervention patients showed a trend toward reduced all-cause hospitalizations and total hospital days. On long-term (mean, 283 days) follow-up, there was substantial attrition of the 3-month gain in outcomes, with sustained significant reduction only in days in hospital for cardiac cause. Conclusions—In a population with high background use of standard HF therapy, a DM intervention, uniformly delivere