In the first episode of our Masterclass video series, host, Dr Harriette Van Spall (McMaster University, Hamilton, CA) meets with Dr Biykem Bozkurt (Baylor College of Medicine and Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX, US), chair of the Consensus Statement on the Universal Definition and Classification of Heart Failure released by Heart Failure Society of America, Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology and the Japanese Heart Failure Society. 

Dr Van Spall asks Dr Bozkurt about the rationale for the report and the limitations in the existing classification system. Dr Bozkurt presents the key points of the consensus statement including the new universal definition and the stages of heart failure. They discuss where the role of phenotypes fits into this new classification. 

Recorded remotely from Hamilton and Houston, 2021. 

Editor: Mirjam Boros