Future Patient - Telerehabilitation of Heart Failure Patients

Future Patient - Telerehabilitation of Heart Failure Patients

The idea behind the Future Patient research project is to develop a telerehabilitation program and tools for patients with heart failure.

The hypothesis for this study is that participation in a telerehabilitation program for patients with heart failure will increase the patients' quality of life and multi-parametric (subjective and objective) individualized monitoring in a telerehabilitation program for patients with heart failure will increase detection of worsening of symptoms and avoid future hospitalization of the HF-patients.

The overall aim is to test, implement and evaluate a telerehabilitation program for patients with heart failure from clinical, psychosocial, health literacy and e-health literacy, inter-organizational, health economic and technical perspectives.

Furthermore, this study has sub aims:

• To increase the quality of life for patients with Heart Failure (HF)
• To optimize the medical treatment of patients with HF
• To perform multi-parametric (subjective and objective) individualized monitoring in order to detect worsening of symptoms and avoid hospitalizations
• To increase physical activities for patients with heart failure in everyday life in a telerehabilitation program
• To facilitate patient-initiated self-care management actions upon the following early detection of changes in source data (steps taken, weight, blood pressure, pulse, sleep, illness perception, motivation, anxiety and depression)
• To evaluate patients health literacy and e-health literacy participating in a telerehabilitation program and rehabilitation program
• To test and evaluate the Heart Portal - a digital toolbox for improved self-management for patients with heart failure and their relatives
• To explore the experiences and perspectives of the patients and their relatives when being part of a telerehabilitation program
• To test and evaluate a cross sector communication platform from a patient and healthcare professional perspective
• To perform a cost-effectiveness analysis of total costs of healthcare and rehabilitation services

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients diagnosed with HF according to New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class I-IV with max 20 % in class I or who have a current hospitalization for acute decompensated HF within the past two weeks
• Adults (18 years or older); no upper age limit
• Patients living in Viborg and Skive Municipality
• Living at home and capable of caring for him/herself
• Have basic computer skills or a relative who have basic computer skills
• Informed consent to participate in a telerehabilitation program
• May have a pacemaker

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy
• Drug addiction defined as the use of cannabis, opioids or other drugs
• Previous neurologic, musculoskeletal or cognitive disability or active psychiatric history (as noted in the medical record) other than depression or anxiety related to cardiac or other chronic illness
• Lack of ability to cooperate
• Does not speak Danish