Footnotes

• Both people listed above as authors fulfil the criteria for authorship.

• Article provenance The authors have been leading research into the complexities of heart disease, including heart failure, for decades. In recent years, this work has drawn on complexity theory to raise concerns about the sophistication of the evidence base informing research into disease management programmes, particularly for people with heart failure. This work has been published in the Lancet, Journal of American College of Cardiology and European Journal of Heart Failure. Clark is guarantor.

• Competing interests None.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.