For professionals: Heart failure tools and resources

Healthcare professionals from all disciplines can play an important role in optimising outcomes for patients with heart failure, including avoiding hospitalisation and improving quality of life. Developed based on the Guidelines for the prevention, detection and management of heart failure in Australia 2018, the below tools and resources will support you to provide best practice care for your patients with heart failure.  

Tools from the guidelines

Below are a range of tools derived from the Guidelines for the prevention, detection, and management of heart failure in Australia 2018.  

• Heart failure diagnostic criteria  
• The diagnostic work up of a patient with suspected heart failure  
• Management of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction  

Fact sheets  

Our fact sheets for healthcare professionals provide information about the diagnosis, classification, and pharmacological management of heart failure, based on the guidelines.  

• Fact sheet 1: Diagnosis and classification of heart failure (2019). This fact sheet contains comprehensive information about the symptoms, signs, diagnosis and classification of heart failure.  
• Fact sheet 2: Pharmacological management of chronic heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction  (HFrEF)  (2019). This fact sheet provides information about the basics of pharmacological management of chronic HFrEF. 

Resources for GPs and health services  

GPs play a vital role in the management of patients with heart failure in the community. 

This article, Heart failure guidelines: A concise summary for the GP, provides practical summary of the latest guidelines for heart failure, with a focus on the diagnosis and management of heart failure in the primary care setting.  

Read the article 

Our 5 steps to a safe discharge resource provides guidance on the key considerations when discharging a patient from hospital who has been admitted with heart failure.  

Download 

Our Heart Failure Toolkit for health services provides a targeted approach to reducing heart failure readmissions and decreasing variation in care.   

Read more 

NPS MedicineWise Collaboration  

NPS MedicineWise and the National Heart Foundation of Australia program - Heart failure: taking an active role  

Early diagnosis of heart failure and effective management in primary care prolongs lives, keeps people out of hospital and improves quality of life. 

We are collaborating with NPS MedicineWise on a national education program - Heart Failure: taking an active role. Like the Heart Foundation, NPS MedicineWise is an independent, not-for-profit organisation. Our organisations are aligned with our shared mission to improve health outcomes for Australians with heart failure. 

The multifaceted program is designed to: 

• support GPs in the early diagnosis and classification of heart failure 
• provide clinical guidance on initiation and ongoing management of medicines
• empower patients with effective self-management strategies to improve their quality of life.

A range of resources, tools and information is available on the heart failure program page. 



The NPS MedicineWise program on heart failure has been developed in collaboration with the National Heart Foundation of Australia. This program is fully funded by the Australian Government  Department of Health.

Request an educational visit for your general practice

GPs are ideally placed to identify patients with heart failure, provide effective life-saving therapy and coordinate high-quality, patient-centered care. NPS MedicineWise is currently providing educational visits as part of the heart failure program to support GPs managing this complex condition. 

GPs and practice managers can request a visit by contacting NPS MedicineWise.  

The program incorporates recommendations and resources developed from the National Heart Foundation of Australia and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand’s Guidelines for the prevention, detection and management of heart failure in Australia 2018.  

Clinical case study for pharmacists

Learn how you can support two different patients with heart failure who present to your community pharmacy.

Learning outcomes:

• Identify common symptoms and signs where heart failure may be suspected and refer patients to their GP to facilitate early diagnosis.
• Explain the different management approaches for heart failure with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF) and heart failure with preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (HFpEF).
• Describe the use of guideline-recommended medicines to reduce hospitalisations and improve survival for patients with HFrEF.
• Identify and recommend deprescribing medicines which can worsen heart failure.
• Describe how pharmacists can improve outcomes for patients with heart failure through patient education and referral to support services as needed.

This free course is accredited by the Australian Pharmacy Council for 1 hour of Group 2 CPD.

Access the course