CHIEF-HF: No-Touch Initiation of Canagliflozin in Patients With Heart Failure Improves QoL

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Ileana L. Piña, MD, MPH: Hi. This is Ileana Piña from Central Michigan University, and this is my blog. With me today, fresh from the American Heart Association (AHA) meetings, is Dr Eldrin Lewis. Dr Lewis is the chief of cardiology at Stanford, a position that he's been in now for about a year. Is that right?

Eldrin F. Lewis, MD, MPH: About a year and a half.

Piña: I've asked him to talk about the CHIEF-HF trial. In this blog, you have heard me, many times, talk about health status and quality of life and about the SGLT2 inhibitors. These drugs are impressive because they do so many things, but they primarily keep people out of the hospital. We've had assessments of health status coming in trials for empagliflozin. At the AHA meeting, we heard about dapagliflozin, sotagliflozin, canagliflozin.

Eldrin, tell me about the CHIEF-HF trial.

Lewis: First of all, thank you very much, Dr Piña. It's truly a pleasure.

The nice thing about it is that the entire study was done without a face-to-face visit. The reason I think that's important is because it gives access to patients who may not be able to go to your traditional healthcare centers because of the distance traveled, the cost, etc., so you can reach out and actually meet the patients where they are.