Ta Anyu A, Badawy L, Cannata A, et al. - The results showed that during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitalization for heart failure (HF) was associated with higher all-cause mortality among patients who survived to discharge. There is a need for further studies to distinguish predictors of these adverse outcomes to improve outpatient management during a critical period in the management of acute HF.

• Between 7 January and 14 June 2020, researchers included a total of 512 patients who survived their hospitalization for acute HF in two South London referral centers were enrolled in the study and compared them with 725 patients from the corresponding period in 2019.

• All-cause mortality was the primary outcome.

• The data indicated that the demographic characteristics of patients admitted in 2020 were similar to the 2019 cohort.

• Furthermore, the median (IQR) follow-up was 622 (348–691) days. It was shown that all-cause mortality after discharge remained significantly higher for patients admitted in 2020 in comparison with the equivalent period in 2019 (P < 0.01), which may relate to observed differences in place of care with fewer patients being managed on specialist cardiology wards during the COVID-19 pandemic.