A network against failing hearts--introducing the German "Competence Network Heart Failure".
Heart failure (HF) has been identified as one of the most threatening diseases for the western civilisation, posing a risk to health for a rising number of patients. Acknowledging the medical problem of HF to be both economically and socially threatening the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) initiated a nationwide research network aiming to find new ways in prevention, alleviation and treatment of the widespread disease. The "Competence Network Heart Failure" (CNHF), initiated in 2003, bundles the scientific expertise in a large-scale research network; its aims are the coordination of basic and applied clinical research as well as dissemination of findings into clinical practice in order to consolidate and perpetuate the achieved improvements. The scope of this paper is to introduce the CNHF and to provide an overview of the tasks and hitherto attained achievements to a broad spectrum of health care providers.
Mehrhof
Felix
F
Löffler
Markus
M
Gelbrich
Götz
G
Ozcelik
Cemil
C
Posch
Maximilian
M
Hense
Hans-Werner
HW
Keil
Ulrich
U
Scheffold
Thomas
T
Schunkert
Heribert
H
Angermann
Christiane
C
Ertl
Georg
G
Jahns
Roland
R
Pieske
Burkert
B
Wachter
Rolf
R
Edelmann
Frank
F
Wollert
Kai C
KC
Maisch
Bernhard
B
Pankuweit
Sabine
S
Erbel
Raimund
R
Neumann
Till
T
Herzog
Wolfgang
W
Katus
Hugo
H
Müller-Tasch
Thomas
T
Zugck
Christian
C
Düngen
Hans-Dirk
HD
Regitz-Zagrosek
Vera
V
Lehmkuhl
Elke
E
Störk
Stefan
S
Siebert
Uwe
U
Wasem
Jürgen
J
Neumann
Anja
A
Göhler
Alexander
A
Anker
Stefan D
SD
Köhler
Friedrich
F
Möckel
Martin
M
Osterziel
Karl-Josef
KJ
Dietz
Rainer
R
Rauchhaus
Mathias
M
D019058:Community Networks / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans