The rapid transition to and reliance on telehealth to manage patients with heart failure (HF) during the COVID-19 pandemic does not appear to impact clinical outcomes, according to real-world data.

HF outpatients managed with telehealth visits did not show a significantly higher adjusted risk for subsequent emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admissions, intensive care use, or death at 30 and 90 days, the investigators report in JACC: Heart Failure.

Dr. Brett Sperry, senior author of the study and cardiologist at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, talked to Medscape Cardiology about the findings.

"Telehealth is safe and effective in probably some of our highest-risk patients who traditionally have needed hands-on, in-person assessment and evaluation — those patients who have heart failure — so we shouldn't be afraid to use it all the time, not when needed as a minimum," Sperry said.

Read the full Medscape article: New Data Spotlight Safety of HF Telehealth Visits in the Pandemic