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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
A digital outreach strategy — just an email and a phone consult offer — more than doubled SGLT2 inhibitor uptake in heart failure patients compared to usual care. The EMAIL-HF trial, presented at the ESC Congress, showed a 128% increase in prescriptions at 6 months, with effects sustained through 24 months. Researchers say the approach could help close major treatment gaps in heart failure care.
Despite strong evidence supporting SGLT2 inhibitors for heart failure, many eligible patients never receive them — often because they've fallen out of specialist care or face fragmented healthcare systems. A new registry-based randomized trial called EMAIL-HF, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, tested whether a targeted digital nudge could change that.
Researchers in Denmark identified nearly 6,000 heart failure patients not on SGLT2 inhibitors and sent half of them an email through the national Digital Post system, offering information about the drugs and a free phone consultation with a heart failure specialist. The results were striking: 60% of patients responded to the email, and 31% of those went on to start an SGLT2 inhibitor after their consultation.
Why it matters: This low-cost, scalable approach shows that proactively reaching patients using existing health data can rapidly close treatment gaps — a model that could extend well beyond heart failure to other underserved conditions.
