Thousands of elderly patients with heart failure are missing out on life-saving medication because the condition is not being documented in their medical records, a large Australian study has found.

In an observational study of de-identified health data from 1.93 million patients (median age 72) in general practice between July 2013 and June 2018, researchers sought to determine the ‘real-world’ state of heart failure in primary care and whether it was being adequately managed.