Dedicated heart valve networks for improving the outcome of patients with valvular heart disease?

Abstract : The prevalence of valvular heart disease (VHD) is increasing as the result of an ageing population. The most recent EuroHeart survey on VHD underlined an important gap between guidelines on the management of patients with VHD and real-life practice [1]. Several explanations may account for this discrepancy. VHD care is not considered as a cardiology subspecialty, although patients with complex or multiple VHD along with comorbid conditions need both clinical and pathophysiological VHD expertise, multimodality imaging and a global approach.