Prevalence & composition of heart valve multi-disciplinary teams within a national health system

Standards defining a ‘Heart Valve Centre’: ESC Working Group on Valvular Heart Disease and European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery Viewpoint

“…Some heart valve clinics may include interventional cardiologists or surgeons allowing immediate case-discussions in patients suitable for intervention. According to local structures and regulations some roles can be delegated to clinical scientists or specialist nurses within a multidisciplinary service, 9,10 which is safe and cost-effective. 11,12 In the UK, follow-up of patients with native valve disease or biological replacement valves requiring echocardiography is increasingly performed by clinical scientists.…”

Specialist valve clinic: why, who and how?

“…One of 34 valve clinics saw only patients with AS. A multidisciplinary meeting27 was held for general valve disease in 24 (69%) centres but 3 (9%) centres discussed only aortic valves cases. Multidisciplinary team discussions for aortic valve disease were dominated by TAVI.…”

The central role of the cardiac imager in heart valve disease

“…It depends also on local expertise in surgical techniques and in interventional cardiology approaches. In this review, we will focus on the imaging and clinical aspects, which have extremely strong interdependencies, together with interactions with surgical and interventional expertise (1, 2, 3).…”