Understanding the needs of older patients with severe heart failure

Towards the end of life, most people acquire a serious progressive illness that increasingly interferes with their usual activities until death. Different types of illness trajectories have been described, the most well known with steady progression and usually a clear terminal phase, typically cancer. Patients with non-malignant disease often follow other trajactories, e.g. with more gradual decline over a longer period of time, with more sudden, seemingly unexpected death. Among other, this trajectory is typical for patients with severe heart failure. So far, only little is known about the needs and perceptions of these patients, particularly in high age. This prospectively performed qualitative study aims to improve the understanding of the needs and perceptions of older patients with severe heart failure and to propose patient-centred models of care considering the framework of the German health system.