A team of experts is working in partnership with older people to trial a new care approach to increase the independence of older people with heart failure and frailty.
Many people have multiple health conditions, but most health services have been designed to deal with one problem at a time. The new £2.3 million CHART trial aims to test a new care approach called Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) to improve independence in older people who live with both heart failure and frailty. From February 2025, the trial will be recruiting people across England in the North West, South West, and the Yorkshire & Humber region.
CGA involves older people as well as their families, carers and healthcare professionals to identify and help manage multiple problems in health and daily life and prevent new ones arising. It includes creating a plan to address concerns identified by the older person (as well as their family and carers, where relevant) and agreeing interventions to support the plan. The plan, interventions and support are reviewed and adapted over time to support changing individual needs.
The trial aims to see if CGA in addition to usual care helps people with heart failure and frailty maintain or improve everyday activities. This will be compared with people getting usual care alone.
Lauren Walker, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Internal Medicine is working alongside colleagues at University of Exeter, and University of Leeds.
Professor Walker said: "Frailty and heart failure often coexist, along with multiple long-term conditions that accumulate as we age. Unfortunately, healthcare services are not always designed to address these conditions together. In Liverpool, our regional multi-specialist, multidisciplinary service is dedicated to delivering integrated, patient-centred care for people living with heart failure and multimorbidity. The CHART trial presents an exciting opportunity to evaluate how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment can help older adults living with both frailty and heart failure maintain their independence and improve their quality of life. By taking a holistic, proactive approach, we aim to transform care for this vulnerable population and ensure their needs are better met."
The trial is a collaboration between the Universities of Exeter, Leeds and Liverpool, along with Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, and the NIHR Applied Research Collaborations South West Peninsula (PenARC) and Yorkshire & Humber (YHARC). It is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme.
