Hospitalized Heart Failure in the United States: Lessons Learned from Clinical Trial Populations.

Hospitalized heart failure (HHF) patients carry a prognosis comparable to many cancers and constitute more than 1 million hospital admissions annually in the United States. To date, North Americans have comprised a minority of those included in prior hospitalized HF trials and have been repeatedly shown to differ from patients in other areas of the world in terms of clinical characteristics, length of hospital stay, therapy utilization, and post-discharge outcomes. Recognizing the varying patient profiles and outcomes of North Americans enrolled in prior HHF trial programs is critical to optimizing design of future drug development programs and maximizing chances of bringing a novel therapeutic agent to the bedside.