Feasibility of the Use in Spanish Hospitals of Recommended Standards to Measure Results in Patients With Heart Failure (HF-Outcomes-Spain)

1. MAIN GOAL To evaluate through a pilot study the viability of establishing and maintaining for one year in selected Spanish centers the set of standards for measuring results in patients with heart failure proposed by ICHOM (International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement). (International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement).
2. SPECIFIC GOALS To identify factors that hinder the use and applicability of this group of standards in real life, where appropriate, defined as the variables not filled in and the reason for the absence of such information To estimate the workload necessary to implement this set of variables within everyday clinical practice.
3. STUDY DESIGN Observational pilot study with prospective follow-up with data collection at 30 days, 6 months and 1 year.

Due to the defined objective, the methods used are, to a large extent, those proposed by ICHOM, except in those sections that may be slightly modified to adapt to the local situation.

3.1. Selection of centers and patients Six centers with experience and adequate organization (heart failure unit) and with a sufficient size have been selected to guarantee the recruitment of patients in a short period of time (around three weeks). The main justification was to seek, within the usual clinical practice, centers where, due to the organization and interest in heart failure, the chances of success of this initiative were greater.

100 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of heart failure who meet inclusion criteria and with no exclusion criteria will be selected in each center.

3.2. Sample size considerations For the main outcome, success is considered if the proportion of patients followed is ≥ 70%. A random sample of 588 individuals is sufficient to estimate, with 95% confidence and a precision of +/- 3.5 percentage units, a population percentage that is expected to be around 75%. Six Spanish centers will participate and a recruitment target of 100 consecutive patients is set, for a total of 600 patients in the study. In addition, these sizes in each center offer, accepting an alpha risk of 0.05, a power greater than 80% to detect statistically significant differences between two centers, assuming that a follow-up of 75% of patients is achieved in one and 55% in the other.