Automated Hovering to Improve Medication Adherence Among Myocardial Infarction Patients (Heartstrong)

The goal of this proposal is to test the implementation of an innovative approach to improving health and lowering cost for a high risk population of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) immediately post-hospitalization. The investigators will implement a new service delivery approach that will provide a foundation for a payment system that rewards keeping high-risk patients healthy and that deploys technology and a health care workforce of the future to implement prevention, care coordination, care process re-engineering, team-based care, and the use of data to support new care delivery models. This program is focused on coronary artery disease (CAD), but we expect that a successful implementation of this model will demonstrate a sustainable pathway to the three-part aim not just for CAD, but for many other conditions whose outcomes are highly sensitive to post-discharge coordination.

This proposal has three main principles:

1. Principles of behavioral economics that have been developed, refined, and tested over the past decade offer practical insights into health behaviors that were previously unavailable and are not reflected in existing care models.
2. New technology, typically wireless devices for pill bottles, and mobile telephones, make engagement with patients substantially easier and more immediate now than ever before.
3. While randomized clinical intervention trials provide exceptional confidence of comparative effectiveness in narrow interventions, they are slow and rigid and dont reflect the urgency that health care transformation currently requires. Principles of rapid cycle innovation are gaining acceptance as an alternative to or supplement of these traditional methods in supporting evidence for implementation success.