History

It was during a meeting of the investigators of the Asian HF Registry with the leadership of the ESC in 2016 that a question was asked from the representatives of all the participating countries about the activities of HF societies in their respective countries. At that time, nothing much was happening in India in this field. Dr VK Chopra who attended this meeting, on his return discussed this with Prof. Inder Anand who encouraged him to take the initiative to start an association. Following discussions by Dr VK Chopra with colleagues across the country and a lot of encouragement from senior cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, the Heart Failure Association of India was formed in 2016. The objectives were promoting the awareness of HF among physicians and patients , improving the care of patients by encouraging appropriate application of GDMT, continuing medical education to keep cardiologists abreast with the latest advances, improve skills of nurses and other paramedics looking after HF patients and collaboration with established international HF societies to provide increased international exposure to our members. A very important step in this direction was the formation of a partnership with the HFA of ESC, where in both societies agreed to hold joint sessions in each other’s annual conferences. This has been a very successful and fruitful association for which special thanks are due to Prof. Stefan D Anker and the leadership of HFA of ESC.

Over the years the HFAI has strengthened its position and collaborated with other societies in supporting each other’s scientific sessions as well as organising numerous teaching sessions across the country. Under the present leadership our activities have multiplied several fold and now consist of Physicians’ and nurses certification courses, monthly topical webinars with the participation of international experts in their fields, HF clinics for Post-graduate students, monthly quizzes,how to do sessions and financial support for selected research projects in HF. Enthusiastic participation by the members of the HFAI has been very gratifying and has hugely contributed to the success of our association.