While the world has been focusing on COVID-19, another pandemic has been growing in prevalence across the globe. Heart failure (HF) is on the rise and has been for some time. It currently affects around 26 million people worldwide and that figure is expected to go on rising.

Not only is HF a leading cause of death, particularly among the elderly population, the continuing treatment of HF survivors and those at risk also places an immense financial burden on the world’s health systems. 

In 2020, Giuseppe Lippi and Fabian Sanchis-Gomar aimed to provide an objective analysis of the worldwide epidemiological burden of HF. In their report, Global epidemiology and future trends of heart failure, they calculated the annual global expenditure on HF treatment to be US$ 346.17billion.