Patient Preference and Adherence

Patient Preferences, Treatment Decision Making, and Adherence in Acute Cardiovascular Care

Acute cardiovascular care often requires important treatment decisions to be made within a limited period of time. Patients with acute coronary syndromes, acute heart failure, acute aortic syndromes, serious arrhythmias, acute limb ischemia, or other cardiovascular emergencies may need to choose among medical, catheter-based, endovascular, or surgical options while they are symptomatic and processing unfamiliar information. In these settings, the clinically preferred option may not always be the option that a patient fully understands, accepts, or feels able to follow after discharge. This Article Collection will focus on the patient perspective in acute cardiovascular care, examining preferences, treatment decision making, treatment acceptability, communication, consent, satisfaction, and adherence during and after urgent cardiovascular events.

This topic is important because outcomes in acute cardiovascular disease depend not only on technical success, but also on whether patients understand risks and benefits, participate meaningfully in decisions, and remain engaged with treatment after discharge. Shared decision making and patient autonomy can be difficult to achieve when decisions must be made quickly, uncertainty is high, and patients or families are under psychological stress. Differences in health literacy, culture, socioeconomic circumstances, trust, expectations, and communication may influence treatment acceptance, refusal, satisfaction, and continuity of care. Better evidence on these factors can help clinicians present treatment options more clearly, reduce decisional conflict, support informed consent, and design follow-up strategies that improve adherence and patient-reported outcomes.

The Collection will welcome patient-centered research across acute coronary syndromes, acute heart failure, acute aortic syndromes, arrhythmia-related emergencies, acute peripheral arterial and limb ischemia, urgent cardiovascular surgery, and catheter-based or endovascular interventions. Relevant subtopics include invasive versus conservative treatment, PCI versus surgery, open versus endovascular procedures, risk communication, shared decision making, medication adherence, rehabilitation, discharge planning, health literacy, digital health, telemedicine, remote monitoring, treatment satisfaction, quality of life, decisional conflict, treatment burden, and psychological or socioeconomic influences on care. Original clinical research, prospective and retrospective observational studies, qualitative and mixed-methods research, patient surveys, implementation studies, health-services research, and clinically relevant narrative or systematic reviews are encouraged. Basic laboratory and animal studies, and meta-analyses, are outside the proposed scope.

Keywords: Patient preference, Treatment adherence, Shared decision making, Acute cardiovascular care, Patient reported outcomes

Dr. Burak Toprak, MD, is a cardiovascular surgery specialist at Mersin City Education and Research Hospital in Mersin, Türkiye. His clinical and research interests include coronary and aortic surgery, peripheral vascular disease, perioperative outcomes, and cardiovascular risk stratification. His academic work focuses particularly on inflammatory and hematologic biomarkers, surgical outcomes, and prognostic models in cardiovascular disease. He is actively involved in clinical research, peer review, and academic publishing in cardiovascular medicine and surgery.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer review if they can pass the desk assessments as part of our standard editorial process; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).
The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 30th July 2027.
Please contact Saniya Qureshi at saniya.qureshi@taylorandfrancis.com with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.