B-IMPACT: Basel Interdisciplinary Multimodal Program for Advanced Cardiac Surgery Therapies

B-IMPACT is an interdisciplinary program for patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery at the University Hospital Basel. It aims to prepare patients optimally for surgery, support a faster recovery, improve the quality of care, and create a structured basis for clinical research.

Two to six weeks before surgery, patients attend a dedicated outpatient preparation day. An advanced practice nurse provides structured education and screens for frailty, nutritional risk, cognitive impairment, delirium risk, anxiety and depression, quality of life, and treatment expectations. Laboratory testing targets modifiable risk factors such as anemia, iron deficiency, and poor glycemic control. On the same day, patients are seen by cardiac surgery, physiotherapy, psychosomatic medicine, and anesthesiology. They can join supervised prehabilitation with endurance and strength training three times per week or follow a home-based exercise program. A patient brochure and a daily diary support them from preparation through their hospital stay.

A prospective registry is being established to collect data from all patients in the program, including preoperative risk profiles, adherence to program elements, patient-reported outcomes and experiences, and clinical outcomes. The registry will serve as the basis for master’s and doctoral theses and scientific publications.

B-IMPACT is led by the Department of Cardiac Surgery together with nursing, physiotherapy, psychosomatic medicine, anesthesiology, and other partners at the University Hospital Basel, in collaboration with the University Medical Center Göttingen.