Creation of standardized tools for therapeutic education specifically dedicated to chronic heart failure patients: The French I-CARE project B Yves Juillie `re a, * , Jean N. Trochu b , Patrick Jourdain c , Je ´rome Roncalli d , Emmanuelle Gravoueille b , He ´le `ne Guibert b , He ´le `ne Lambert b , Laure Spinazze d , Nadine Tallec e , Florence Beauvais g , Corne ´lie Ertzinger g , Guillaume Jondeau f on behalf of the Working Group on Heart Failure of the French Society of Cardiology a CHU Nancy-Brabois, Cardiology, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France b CHU Nantes, Cardiology, Nantes, France c CHG Rene ´ Dubos, Cardiology, Pontoise, France d CHU Toulouse, Cardiology, Toulouse, France e Clinique Saint-Yves, Cardiovascular rehabilitation, Rennes, France f Ho ˆpital Ambroise Pare ´, Cardiology, Boulogne-Billancourt, France g AstraZeneca Company, Cardiology, Rueil-Malmaison, France Received 12 October 2005; accepted 15 November 2005 Available online 3 April 2006 Abstract Aim: To develop educational programs in chronic heart failure (CHF), creation of standardized tools for therapeutic education specifically dedicated to CHF patients was performed as a part of the French I-CARE project. Methods and results: A working group was constituted of cardiologists, nurses and dieticians, specialized in both therapeutic education and CHF. The personal patient’s document consisted of a ring binder with dividers containing index cards for 5 units. The unit ‘‘Educational diagnosis’’ comprised a guide for the user and an auto-questionnaire for the patient. The unit ‘‘Knowledge of the disease’’ comprised a whiteboard for explaining cardiovascular physiology, a 3D-model of heart, and a glossary. The unit ‘‘Diet control’’ was composed of posters, a food-card game with a game mat figuring the different meals of a day, a low-salt recipe book, and 1-g salt spoons. The unit ‘‘Physical activity and daily life’’ comprised recommendations for physical activity and questionable real-life situations, and a card game for evaluation. The unit ‘‘Medical treatment’’ consisted of index cards for different cardiovascular drugs. Conclusion: These educational tools should help multidisciplinary teams to develop therapeutic education dedicated to CHF in order to improve self-management, morbidity and quality of life in CHF patients. D 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: I-CARE project; Chronic heart failure; Therapeutic education 1. Introduction Despite effective treatments for reducing total mortality and hospitalizations, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or beta-blockers [1,2], mortality and morbidity in chronic heart failure (CHF) remains unacceptably high [3,4]. CHF becomes a major problem of public health in industria]- lized countries [5,6] due to both population aging [7,8] and 0167-5273/$ - see front matter D 2006 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2005.11.067 i The I-CARE project (I nsuffisance cardiaque: e ´duCAtion the ´ Rapeu- tiquE) has been conducted under the auspices of the French Society of Cardiology and the French Federation of Cardiology and financially supported by AstraZeneca Company in France. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: yves.juilliere@wanadoo.fr (Y. Juillie `re). International Journal of Cardiology 113 (2006) 355 – 363 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcard