Lawson is the first line of contact for Huntington Hospital’s new pilot program, launched in February 2023, for treating heart failure patients. The program was the brainchild of Gerin Stevens, MD, PhD, system director of heart failure and cardiac transplantation for Northwell Health, who wanted to use telehealth to bring the system’s most advanced heart failure capabilities to every hospital in the health system.

While Huntington doesn’t have inpatient teams of heart failure specialists, other Northwell hospitals — Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center and North Shore University Hospital — do. Thanks to this program, Huntington patients can be remotely seen via telehealth by one of these cardiologists and be set on a treatment path immediately.

Heart failure is a type of heart disease that typically stems from other conditions, like coronary artery disease, hypertension or arrhythmias such as A-fib. It basically means the heart isn’t able to pump blood in and out as it should. The condition affects more than six million Americans, and that number continues to grow.

“People are surviving heart attacks today that 20 or 30 years ago they would not have survived,” says Samit Shah, MD, director of heart failure at LIJ Medical Center. “In the long term, that means they’re more likely to end up with heart failure as they age.”

Dr. Shah is the physician-lead on Huntington’s heart failure telehealth program and one of the cardiologists participating in the program. His hope is that the program will slow the progression of heart failure for patients and help reduce the risk that they’ll need to be readmitted to the hospital. It’s also designed to identify patients who may benefit from evaluation for advanced therapy options, such as a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) — an implanted pump that takes over some of the work of the heart — or even a heart transplant.

“It’s never too early for us to get involved,” says Dr. Shah. “If we end up seeing these patients too late, we’re limited in what we can offer.”

This is critical because, while serious, heart failure is treatable and sometimes even reversible. “With the right medical management, heart failure can often be stabilized. Kind of like cancer, it can be put into remission — but it’s important to continue medication to prevent a relapse,” says Dr. Shah. “We want to reduce the chances of patients needing to come back to the hospital.”

Nationally, heart failure is one of the main reasons people are hospitalized, and close to 20% of those patients are readmitted within 30 days of their discharge. “Once patients are hospitalized for heart failure, their survival is reduced much more than if they had been stabilized as an outpatient,” Dr. Shah says.

So far, the program is a resounding success. Out of 93 patients in the first year, only a few per month have been transferred out to other hospitals for more direct care by a heart failure specialist. And the team has been picking up on issues that might otherwise have been missed. One patient was evaluated to receive an LVAD, and one even went on to get a heart transplant. “If this program didn’t exist, these people might have simply gone back into the community or been unnecessarily delayed in receiving the appropriate care,” says Dr. Shah.

Lawson’s A-fib patient from July 2023 is doing well. His heart started functioning more efficiently and he lost over 100 pounds, much of that being fluid he’d retained as a consequence of his heart dysfunction. “He feels a lot better and can move better now too,” Lawson says.

Lawson follows his patients closely, making it possible for them to continue to get heart failure treatment close to home, just as the program intended. “The sooner we can get patients on the meds that can help, the sooner we can address the underlying issues and the better outcomes they have,” Lawson says. “That’s exactly what this program was designed for.”