According to a statement, Heart Valve Voice US is “deeply concerned” that the patient perspective was omitted from the recent guidance on resuming cardiovascular procedures published the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The guidance was endorsed by more than one dozen medical societies.
The statement reports that on 20 April 2002, Heart Valve Voice US catalogued the “myriad of confusing and sometimes contradictory recommendations regarding elective procedures” and called for greater consistency and transparency for patients. Later, on 24 April 2020, the society issued guidance for patients regarding elective procedures. It comments: “In this regard, we applaud the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and other cardiovascular societies for issuing consensus guidance on 4 May 2020, on how to safely resume cardiovascular procedures, including transcatheter aortic valve implantation and transcatheter mitral valve repair, and diagnostic tests during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
However, the statement adds that the society is “deeply concerned by the apparent complete lack of patient input or consultation into these recommendations”. “The ACC lists a ‘patient-centred’ approach as its first core value and a guiding principle in all that they do. Omitting patient input from this guidance falls short of meeting their own standard. We also find it perplexing that this guidance would be published behind a paywall and not widely distributed and available to the patients who are trying to make informed decisions about their own care. We stand prepared to engage with the societies to provide meaningful communications for patients so we may appropriately set expectations for diagnosis, care and treatment,” it explains.
