MedPath

Effects of Telemonitoring on the Outcome of Heart Failure Patients After an Incidence of Acute Decompensation

Not Applicable
Active, not recruiting
Conditions
Heart Failure
Interventions
Device: Medly
Registration Number
NCT03358303
Lead Sponsor
University Health Network, Toronto
Brief Summary

Heart failure is the most rapidly rising cardiovascular disease and has come to be recognized as a growing epidemic. Digital health interventions are the most recent iteration of an effort to promote individualized outpatient care through positive behaviour change theory. The UHN team has developed a highly automated and user-centered smartphone-based system, Medly, which allows for the telemonitoring of patients diagnosed with heart failure. The purpose of this study will be two-fold: 1) to determine if the introduction of Medly within two weeks of discharge will improve self-care management, quality of life, and clinical status, 2) to assess whether Medly will lead to a potential reduction in 30 day readmission rates amongst HF patients in the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network (TC LHIN), without increasing the average length of stay or visits to the emergency department. These parameters will be measured as secondary outcomes.

Detailed Description

Heart failure is the most rapidly rising cardiovascular disease and has come to be recognized as a growing epidemic. Digital health interventions are the most recent iteration of an effort to promote individualized outpatient care through positive behaviour change theory. The UHN team has developed a highly automated and user-centered smartphone-based system, Medly, which allows for the telemonitoring of patients diagnosed with heart failure

Patients with heart failure will be provided with a smartphone and commercial home medical devices, such as a blood pressure monitor and weight scale. The measurements from the medical devices will be automatically sent to the smartphone, and from there to a data server at the hospital for analysis and storage. Both clinicians and patients will be able to access these data and will be sent alerts by the system if the measurements are outside of the normal range. The system will be evaluated through interviews and comparing outcomes between the intervention and control groups.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
90
Inclusion Criteria
  • Adults (18 years or older)
  • Hospitalization for decompensated HF > 48 hours
  • Patient speaks and reads English adequately to provide informed consent and understand the text prompts in the application (or has an informal caregiver who can translate for them)
  • Ability to comply with using Medly (ex. able to stand on the weight scale, able to answer symptom questions, etc.)
Exclusion Criteria
  • Dementia or uncontrolled psychiatric illness
  • Residents of long-term care facilities
  • Terminal diagnosis of any health condition with a life expectancy < 1 year
  • Patients who will require inpatient rehabilitation after discharge
  • Participating in another clinical trial that may confound the results

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Telemonitoring (Medly)MedlyMedly is a smartphone application allows heart failure (HF) patients to measure and record their daily weight, blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and self-reported symptoms. This monitoring information is then transmitted wirelessly to a data server where an algorithm is used to generate an alert to a healthcare provider as necessary. The patient also receives an automated self-care message based on their measurements and reported symptoms.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in NYHA classBaseline, 1 month, 3 months

Change in NYHA class

Compliance with Medly utilization3 months

Ability to adhere to Medly program

Change in quality of lifeBaseline, 3 months

Change in quality of life, as measured with the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-12) and EuroQol (EQ5D)

Change in self-care of health failureBaseline, 3 months

Change in self-care of health failure as measured by the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI)

Change BNP/NT-pro BNP levelsBaseline, 1 month, 3 months

Change BNP/NT-pro BNP levels

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Hospital length of stay0 - 3 months

Hospital length of stay

30-day HF readmission rate1 month, 3 months

30-day HF readmission rate

Number of visits to the emergency department0 - 3 months

Number of visits to the emergency department

Trial Locations

Locations (3)

North York General Hospital

🇨🇦

North York, Ontario, Canada

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

🇨🇦

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Mount Sinai Hospital

🇨🇦

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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