How to become a CHFN site

Thank you for your inquiry regarding the Canadian Heart Failure Network (CHFN). I will try to briefly explain the process we currently have in place. It is to be viewed as an open and constructive process as we wish to encourage and help as many clinics as we can. However, we also wish each clinic to know what we can offer and what they can contribute.

Each new centre needs to have:

• A physician leader of their heart failure (HF) clinic
• A commitment to HF management and follow up
• A nurse (full or part time) with special expertise and training in HF management
• A sufficient number of HF patients and referral community
• A commitment to enter their patient data into the database with regular downloads to national database
• A willingness to sign a contract of agreement, and a collegial spirit!

I doubt if any of the above are issues for yourself or your centre. We make regular updates to our database to enhance implementation and usefulness.

The database is designed as a local tool like an electronic medical record but also allows download of data without specific patient identifiers to the National database. The data that is uploaded is secure and password protected, as the upload technology uses the same encryption technology used for online banking.

Each centre must:

• Obtain local ethics approval from a fully constituted institutional review board
• All patients must sign a consent form before their unidentified data can be entered into the database and uploaded to the national database.

There is a consent template on our website (www.chfn.ca) in the members section. Once we have approved and received your signed Program Agreement, you will get a username and password.

What we can give to you:

• The database to help organize and track your patients locally (you ‘own’ these data)
• Opportunity to benchmark your clinic with the National data
• Opportunity to ask research questions of your data and that of the National data
• Use of the data to lobby more effectively for local resources
• An invitation to come to our annual meeting currently held in conjunction with the Heart Failure Society of America in September
• Networking with like minded colleagues to improve the management of HF patients and to learn together
• Access to all benefits of the website and the Network.

We have a number of clinics that are in the process of joining and we will continue to do this in as expeditious a manner as possible.

In a short letter, I cannot cover all areas or questions you might have but we will be posting on our website a more comprehensive information package and additional developments.

We would welcome your potential involvement and I am sure would benefit from your expertise. Let me know your thoughts, the current situation in your centre, and any ideas and questions that you might have and how you would like to proceed. Please complete the attached information sheet for your centre and return by fax.

Thank you for your interest. We look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes,

J. Malcolm O. Arnold
Chair, Canadian Heart Failure Network (CHFN)

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Membership Information October 2010.doc	41 KB

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