Digital post invitation more than doubled starts of proven heart failure drugs
In Denmark, EMAIL-HF used registries to find people with heart failure who were not on an SGLT2 inhibitor and invited them through the government digital post system to a specialist telephone consultation. Within six months 18.6 per cent had started dapagliflozin or empagliflozin against 8.2 per cent under usual care, and the gap held at 24 months. Investigators said adoption of proven therapies in routine practice remains limited.
Science··Midday
Registry screening fed a digital post invitation
EMAIL-HF screened people with heart failure in Denmark's Capital Region and the municipality of Roskilde through national health registries and followed 5,996 who were not on an SGLT2 inhibitor. Those in the digital-strategy arm received an information letter through the government Digital Post system and an offer of a telephone consultation with a heart failure specialist; 60 per cent signed up on the platform. The registry-based digital invitation routed people missing the proven drug class toward a specialist call.[1], [2]
Drug starts rose to more than twice the usual-care share
Within six months 18.6 per cent had started dapagliflozin or empagliflozin in the digital-strategy arm against 8.2 per cent under usual care, and the gap held at 24 months. A secondary measure of hospitalisation for heart failure or death of any kind was 13.0 per cent against 14.0 per cent and stayed close. Trial lead Mariam Elmegaard of Herlev and Gentofte University Hospital said that because only a proportion responded to the invitation, the difference in drug use between the groups stayed limited.[1], [2]
Proven therapy still lags in routine practice
The investigator from Herlev and Gentofte University Hospital said adoption of proven therapies in routine practice remains limited. Elmegaard said a much larger study would have been needed to detect the difference in clinical outcomes reliably. Those followed had a mean age of 71, 33 per cent were women and mean heart failure duration was around five years. The digital invitation more than doubled the share starting the proven drug class among registry-identified people; investigators presented it as a route to widen access to evidence-based treatment.[2], [1]
