Severe aortic stenosis is a disease affecting the heart valves with a growing prevalence in Europe and globally. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a treatment for this condition, which is an alternative to open heart surgery, using a less invasive (‘keyhole’) approach. Around 70% of the specialist
TAVI centres in the UK, which offer this procedure, employ a specialist TAVI nurse. However, many of these roles are not on substantive contracts and some of these nurses may be working under heavy burdens given the number of procedures performed by the centre. York Health Economics Consortium (YHEC) has undertaken a project to assess the potential value that specialist TAVI nurses bring to the patient pathway within the NHS, based on information obtained from TAVI nurses at seven hospitals in the UK.