The Heart Valve Clinic at the Heart Hospital in Doha, Qatar: An Evidence-Based Standard of Care

The incidence of degenerative heart valve disease is rising in developing countries and diagnosis, assessment and management are becoming increasingly complex. The availability of new interventional procedures has further expanded the therapeutic armamentarium, but at the same time, it has increased the proportion of high-risk patients, in whom risk-benefit analysis and the choice of the most appropriate therapy are particularly difficult. Accordingly, international societies have recommended dedicated heart valve clinics (HVCs) to meet these needs. The HVC is a specialist outpatient clinic linked with multidisciplinary inpatient care as well as education and training. The main functions of the HVC are to confirm and refine the diagnosis of heart valve disease, follow patients and to determine the correct timing of referral to the appropriate heart valve team. We report on why an HVC was set up at the Heart Hospital in Doha, Qatar.