Telemonitoring Adherence to Medications to Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Approximately one in four patients hospitalized with heart failure is readmitted within 30 days of discharge and more than 50% are readmitted within 6 months of discharge. Heart failure admissions are a major contributor to the enormous health care costs associated with heart failure. Thus far, the identification of effective interventions that prevent unnecessary readmissions has remained elusive. As a result, there is a pressing need to identify novel, cost-effective approaches to reducing heart failure readmissions. A growing body of research suggests that poor adherence to heart failure medications is a major reason for preventable heart failure readmissions. In particular, loop diuretic medications are essential to preventing the cardiopulmonary system from becoming overloaded. Patients who have been recently hospitalized may be especially vulnerable to adherence problems as a result of the stress of the recent hospitalization which commonly induces sleep deprivation, nutritional deficiency, physical deconditioning, cognitive impairment, and even delirium. Recent advances in wireless health now enable us to remotely, unobtrusively, and objectively monitor adherence to heart failure medications in the post-discharge period. Early identification of non-adherence to loop diuretic medications has the prevention to prevent a volume overloaded state that leads to a heart failure readmission. As patients who are non-adherent to their loop diuretics may also be non-adherent to other recommended self-management behaviors, early identification of medication nonadherence may provide the context to identify other gaps in self-management. To test our hypothesis that it is feasible to conduct a randomized trial of wireless, medication adherence monitoring with feedback to patients and clinicians, the investigators will enroll 40 patients who are hospitalized for heart failure and discharged on a diuretic medication. Patients will be randomized to 1) usual heart failure care + telemonitoring adherence to diuretic medications (INT); N=20 or 2) usual heart failure care (CTR); N=20. All patients will be asked to take their diuretic medication from a standard pill bottle covered by an electronic pill cap (GlowCap), but only patients assigned to the intervention arm will have their adherence telemonitored by a study clinician in real-time. Patients will have their adherence to medications measured in this fashion for 30 days after discharge. Patients will be contacted at 30 days to determine if they have been hospitalized and to collect other self-reported outcomes data.