Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Vaso-Meditech Launch Advanced Heart Failure Treatment Program

Pune : Gleneagles Global Hospitals, a Parkway Pantai enterprise, in association with Vaso-Meditech Pvt. Ltd. launched the country's first ever 'Advanced Heart Failure Treatment Program' (AHF-TP) which aims identify the prevalence of Heart-Failure among the general population of India.

The 'Gleneagles Advanced Heart Failure Treatment Program' (GAHF-TP) was inaugurated by Mr. Anand Mohan IPS – IG – Central Industrial Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India and Dr. VK Subburaj IAS - Secretary - Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India (Retd.). Mr. Ramesh Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer, India Operations Division, Parkway Pantai Limited, Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Program Director and Chair Cardiac Surgeries, Thoracic Organ Transplant, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Dr. R. Ravikumar, Associate Director, Heart Failure and Transplant Program, Gleneagles Global Hospitals and Dr. S. Ramaswamy, Director, Vaso-Meditech Pvt Ltd were also present at hotel Crowne Plaza to launch the GAHF-TP.

The 'Gleneagles Advanced Heart Failure Treatment Program will look to open 100 'Gleneagles Heart Failure Clinics' across the country where one can visit and seek consultation. The first phase of the program will see two clinics functioning in Chennai, three centres in Bangalore, two centres in Hyderabad, one centre in Mumbai, one centre in Pune and one centre each in Ahmadabad, Raipur and Bhubaneswar. The 'Gleneagles Advanced Heart Failure Treatment Program will aim to achieve this within the first three months of launching the program. At the Advanced Heart Failure Treatment centres the patients will undergo procedures like Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP) treatment and optimization of medical therapy, which will be provided for 35 days as an out-patient day care treatment. During the treatment, proper counselling will be provided to patient on lifestyle management and drug adherence. Any patients that may require further mechanical device based treatment or heart transplant will be directed towards the closest Gleneagles Global Hospitals' facility. All the centres will be connected centrally through an online data management system and all the patients will also be automatically entered into the National Heart Failure registry.

[caption id="attachment_40533" data-align="alignnone" data-width="400"] Image Source: Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Dr. R. Ravikumar, Mr. Anand Mohan, IPS, Mr. Subburaj and Dr. Ramaswamy[/caption]

"Many patients not knowing exactly the nature of their condition, opt for rehospitalisation for the same condition for which they had previously been treated for and discharged," Dr. Sandeep Attawar, Program Director and Chair Cardiac Surgeries, Thoracic Organ Transplant, Gleneagles Global Hospitals said. "When the awareness amongst our urban population is itself so limited one can imagine what the awareness levels will be in smaller towns and rural India. We look to slowly start centres in smaller towns as well as part of phase two of the AHF-TP. To combat this lack of knowledge on proper heart failure treatment in India, Gleneagles Global Hospitals is partnering with Vaso-Meditech Pvt. Ltd. to launch an Advance Heart Failure Treatment Program or the AHF-TP. This will be a first of its kind comprehensive treatment program to treat heart failure. The 6 weeks treatment program will greatly reduce heart failure symptom, reduce mortality and the rehospitalisation rate in our country."

At the Inauguration, Mr. Ramesh Krishnan, Chief Executive Officer, India Operations Division, Parkway Pantai Limited, said, "Our aim is to counter the lack of knowledge and lack of comprehensive heart failure treatment programs in India and to also have India's first Online Heart Failure Registry. This online registry will help in developing an epidemiological data on prevalence of heart failure in India. The registry can also provide data to policy makers in order to implement policies which will help to curb the burden of heart failure in the country. The research work will also help in reducing mortality and rehospitalisation in the case of heart failure and also provide material that can be published on peer review journals,"  added Mr. Krishnan.

Dr. R. Ravikumar, Associate Director Heart Transplant Programme, Gleneagles Global Hospitals noted "Heart failure is the weakening of the heart muscle mostly due to a heart attack, and as a result the heart is unable to pump the needed amount of blood. India has been witnessing an increase in the number of heart failure cases due to factors such as lack of knowledge and the lack of available treatments to mention a few".

"India carries a high mortality rate during the patients hospital stay and post discharge follow-up. Although there is no formal survey, it is estimated that heart failure burden in India ranges from 1.3 million to 4.6 million and the incidence rate stands anywhere between 491,600 to 1.8 million cases per annum." Dr R. Ravikumar further added.

"Enhanced External Counter Pulsation is a non-Invasive cardiac treatment to improve the blood flow to the heart and enhance the heart's pumping function", informed Dr. S. Ramaswamy, Director, Vaso-Meditech Pvt Ltd. "EECP is the cornerstone in Advance Heart failure treatment. Many patients are unaware of these kinds of treatments and are often asked to undergo surgeries to rectify their ailments. With the AHF-TP, we look to create awareness for such treatments amongst the medical professionals, general physicians and the Indian public," added Dr. Ramaswamy.