About CHFN

Managing Heart Failure in the Clinic Setting

Heart failure presents an increasing clinical burden to both patients and physicians. Changes in clinical practice frequently lag behind advances in treatment described in large clinical trials. The Canadian Heart Failure Network (CHFN ) was established in January 1999 in 11 initial centres across Canada to improve the current management of heart failure (HF), to implement new proven therapies in a timely manner, and to collaborate in innovative research approaches to optimize patient management.

Since its conception, the network has demonstrated its feasibility and enormous potential to link provincial centres of HF excellence into a cohesive multidisciplinary group consisting of physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who are dedicated to advance the knowledge and treatment of this disease syndrome.

CHFN has received strong support of its goals from the CIHR Opportunity Fund group ("Towards Quelling the Heart Failure Epidemic") and the HSFC National Heart Failure Task Force, both of which are complementary to the Network but the Network provides a necessary, immediate, and practical outlet to implement and apply to patients many of the ideas generated within these groups.

Although its initiation phase was limited primarily to clinics associated with academic health science centres, because of the wide interest generated, the network is in the stage of rapid expansion to incorporate more centres across the country including community HF clinics and outreach initiatives.

The CHFN will make specific information about its policy regarding the management of the personal health information readily available, except to the extent that it is confidential commercial information.

  • the participating clinics collect personal health information at each visit and upload the patients first and last initials, gender, date of birth, date of final visit or data entry, occupation category, city and the first three digits of their postal code. This information is sent quarterly to a 3rd party who is contracted by the CHFN to house and maintain the CHFN Registry;
  • the participating clinics are the Custodian of Health Information and as such, each clinic is responsible for the appropriate levels of privacy and security of their information;
  • questions &/or concerns can be addressed to the CHFN Privacy Officer through Questions

    If a breach of personal health information occurs, the CHFN Privacy Officer will notify the Participating Centre's local Privacy Officer with the following information, where known:

  • the nature of personal information involved (e.g. name, identifying number, etc.)
  • the number of individuals impacted by the breach and who they are (e.g. patients)
  • the possible scope of the breach
  • the date &/or location of the incident giving rise to the breach
  • when and how the breach was discovered

    The CHFN Privacy Officer will work with all involved to notify patients of the breach

    AttachmentSize
    CHFN Overview May 5, 2010.pdf351.74 KB
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    HF Awareness Week is February 11-15, 2013. For tips on organizing an event, go to News