Heart failure is a debilitating syndrome with a mortality rate similar to that of some cancers.

It is often misdiagnosed and under-diagnosed, and many heart failure patients, who are often elderly, also suffer from other complicating co-morbidities.

In response to the issues that the management of heart failure presents, the BSH was founded in 1998. The idea for the BSH was seeded after a satellite symposium on the diagnosis and management of heart failure, organised by Philip Poole-Wilson and John Cleland, at the British Cardiovascular Society Annual Conference in 1997. The original steering committee consisted of Philip Poole-Wilson, John Cleland, Richard Hobbs and Alan Cowley.