Contemporary cardiovascular medicine is complex, dynamic, and interactive. Therefore, multidisciplinary dialogue between different specialists is required to deliver optimal and patient-centred care. This has led to the concept of explicit collaborations of different specialists caring for patients with complex cardiovascular diseases-that is 'heart teams'. These teams are particularly valuable to minimize referral bias and improve guideline adherence as so to be responsive to patient preferences, needs, and values but may be challenging to coordinate, especially in the acute setting. This position paper-jointly developed by four cardiovascular associations-is intended to provide conceptual and practical considerations for the composition, structure, and function of multidisciplinary teams. It focuses on patients with complex coronary artery diseases in both elective and urgent setting and provide guidance on how to implement the heart team both in chronic and in acute coronary syndromes patients, including cases with mechanical complications and haemodynamic instability; it also discusses strategies for clear and transparent patient communication and provision of a patient-centric approach. Finally, gaps in evidence and research perspectives in this context are discussed.
Keywords: Coronary artery disease; Heart team; Multidisciplinary decision-making.
This article has been co-published with permission in the European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care and European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved. © 2021 the Author(s). The articles are identical except for minor stylistic and spelling differences in keeping with each journal’s style. Either citation can be used when citing this article. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2021. For permissions, please email: [email protected].