The 21^st – 24^th of April Anna Strömberg and Maria Liljeroos from Sweden, Ina Marie Thon Aamodt and Irene Lie from Norway and Edita Lycholip and Jelena Čelutkienė from Lithuania visited Itamar Dach and Michael Kleiner Shocat at the hospital in Hadera.

The visit was part of the NordForsk project “Symptom monitoring after hospitalisation in patients with advanced heart failure – a Nordic-Baltic study” https://www.nordforsk.org/no/programmer-og-prosjekter/prosjekter/symptom-monitoring-after-hospitalisation-in-patients-with-advanced-heart-failure-a-nordic-baltic-study

The overall aim of this project is to develop a new approach to monitoring symptom and signs combining self-assessment tools and a non-invasive monitoring device (micro-Cor system) and to determine the effect of this approach in patients’ advanced HF. The primary outcome is cardiovascular readmission within 30-day readmission. Secondary outcomes include readmission and death for all-cause within 6 months, hospital days, emergency department (ED) visits, unplanned clinic visits, hospital cost, and self-care behavior.

This NordicBaltic – study including Norway, Sweden and Lithuania consists of an explorative, and experimental design employing validated questionnaires, microCor system, and interviews in order to provide a more complete understanding of HF patients self-care situation during 6 months after hospitalization.

During the visit, we learned from Dr Michael Kleiner Shocat how to use the microCor system on heart failure patients at Hadera hospital.

As we stayed in Tel Aviv we travelled one hour to the hospital, and during that time we saw a bit of the beautiful country of Israel and also found time to take a swim in the ocean.