Palliative Care in Heart Failure focuses on improving quality of life for patients with advanced cardiac disease by addressing symptom burden, emotional distress, decision-making needs and family support alongside disease-directed therapies. Rather than being limited to end-of-life care, palliative principles are now integrated early in the heart failure trajectory to help patients live as well as possible despite progressive limitations. As heart failure remains a leading cause of hospitalisation and mortality worldwide, clinicians increasingly seek structured learning opportunities in supportive care when choosing educational pathways or planning to attend a major cardiology conference that highlights holistic, person-centred approaches. These discussions sit at the intersection of advanced heart failure management, ethics and communication, and complement technical sessions on devices and drugs by emphasising the human experience of illness.

A core theme of this session is aligning treatment plans with patient values, preferences and goals. Through careful conversations, clinicians explore how individuals understand their condition, what outcomes matter most and how they balance longevity, symptom relief and independence. Integrating palliative care allows teams to discuss complex options such as transplant evaluation, left ventricular assist devices, inotrope dependence and decisions to de-escalate burdensome interventions. This framework ensures that aggressive therapies are matched to realistic expectations and that patients are not left feeling overwhelmed or unsupported.

Symptom management is another major focus. Because advanced heart failure management often involves persistent breathlessness, fatigue, pain, edema, insomnia and anxiety, attendees will learn practical strategies to optimise diuretics, afterload reduction, oxygen therapy, non-pharmacologic measures and selected palliative medications such as opioids for refractory dyspnea. The role of psychological support, spiritual care, social work and rehabilitation is highlighted, demonstrating how multidisciplinary teams can reduce distress and help patients maintain dignity and autonomy.

Family support and caregiver well-being are woven throughout the discussion. The session explores how to involve family members in care planning, prepare them for clinical changes and provide resources for coping with caregiver strain and anticipatory grief. Participants will also review approaches to advance-care planning, legal documentation, do-not-resuscitate decisions and preferred place-of-care discussions conducted in a compassionate, structured way.

Finally, the session addresses service models, including community-based programmes, home palliative services, telehealth follow-up and integrated heart failure–palliative care clinics. Future directions include digital tools for symptom monitoring, prognostic models that better identify when to initiate or intensify palliative input, and training initiatives that equip cardiology teams with core palliative-care skills. By the end of this session, clinicians will feel more confident offering supportive care that honours patient values while maintaining high-quality, evidence-based cardiology practice. The overall goal is to move beyond a narrow focus on survival alone and instead deliver care that balances prognostic uncertainty with honest communication, thoughtful symptom control and meaningful support for patients and families throughout the entire course of heart failure.