Abstract Body (Do not enter title and authors here): Background: Guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT) for heart failure (HF) evolves, incorporating newer therapies such as SGLT2i within recommendations for HFmrEF and HFpEF. Understanding the contemporary profile of real-world HF patients, in combination with real-world utilization of GDMT, is important for informing GDMT implementation and quality improvement strategies. The EMPACE study aims to improve our comprehension of HF GDMT utilization in real-world settings during post-2020.

Objectives: To describe baseline demographic and clinical characteristics, including baseline treatments, of patients with HF hospitalization (HHF).

Methods: This non-interventional, retrospective cohort study used patient data standardized to the OMOP Common Data Model from the Optum Market Clarity, an integrated EHR and Claims database in the U.S. The study period spanned from Jun-2020 to Oct-2023. Adult patients with a primary diagnosis of HF during hospitalization were stratified by HF phenotypes (HFrEF, HFmrEF, HFpEF) based on left ventricular ejection fraction (EF).

Results:
A total of 30,762 patients with HHF were included (74% HFrEF, 4% HFmrEF, and 22% HFpEF). The mean age was 70.1 years, 60% were male, mean BMI was 30.6 kg/m², and mean eGFR was 58.7 mL/min/1.73m². Of them, 72% had a history of HF and 43% has been previously hospitalized for HF in the past 1 year. The prevalence of baseline comorbidities was as follows: hypertension (90%), coronary artery disease (54%), chronic kidney disease (38%), atrial fibrillation (40%), peripheral artery disease (9%), stroke history (9%), and end-stage renal disease (1%). Medication prior to HF hospitalization are described in the figure 1. Overall, prior comorbidities and HF medication use in the last 365 days prior to HHF were similar between all HHF patients and the HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF phenotypes, except for the lower use of MRA and ARNI in HFmrEF, and HFpEF patients.

Conclusion
This study showed a high comorbidity burden and a low utilization of many GDMT prior to hospitalization, especially for novel GDMT (ARNI and SGLT2i) and in HFmrEF and HFpEF. Despite many medications having a varying strength of guideline recommendation depending on EF, absolute differences in rates of GDMT utilization were relatively small across the EF phenotypes. Across the spectrum of EF, further efforts are needed to improve use of GDMT and reduce the missed opportunities for GDMT implementation that are occurring prior to HHF.