Human-centered design sessions with 14 stakeholders identified 5 clinician themes and 6 patient/caregiver themes on challenges to optimizing heart failure guideline-directed medical therapy.
Stakeholder engagement through human-centered design identified key barriers and facilitators to inform the development of a digital toolkit for optimizing heart failure GDMT.
BACKGROUND: Guideline-directed medical therapies (GDMTs) improve quality of life and health outcomes for patients with heart failure (HF). However, GDMT utilization is suboptimal among patients with HF. OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study were to engage key stakeholders in semistructured, virtual human-centered design sessions to identify challenges in GDMT optimization posthospitalization and inform the development of a digital toolkit aimed at optimizing HF GDMTs. METHODS: For the human-centered design sessions, we recruited ( a ) clinicians who care for patients with HF across 3 hospital systems, ( b ) patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (ejection fraction ≤ 40%) discharged from the hospital within 30 days of enrollment, and ( c ) caregivers. All participants were 18 years or older, English speaking, with Internet access. RESULTS: A total of 10 clinicians (median age, 37 years interquartile range, 35-41, 12 years interquartile range, 10-14 of experience caring for patients with HF, 80% women, 50% White, 50% nurse practitioners) and three patients and one caregiver (median age 57 years IQR: 53-60, 75% men, 50% Black, 75% married) were included. Five themes emerged from the clinician sessions on challenges to GDMT optimization (eg, barriers to patient buy-in). Six themes on challenges (eg, managing medications), 4 themes on motivators (eg, regaining independence), and 3 themes on facilitators (eg, social support) to HF management arose from the patient and caregiver sessions. CONCLUSIONS: The clinician, patient, and caregiver insights identified through human-centered design will inform a digital toolkit aimed at optimizing HF GDMTs, including a patient-facing smartphone application and clinician dashboard. This digital toolkit will be evaluated in a multicenter, clinical trial.
Spaulding et al. (Thu,) conducted a other in Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (n=14). Human-centered design sessions was evaluated on Themes on challenges, motivators, and facilitators to GDMT optimization and HF management. Human-centered design sessions with 14 stakeholders identified 5 clinician themes and 6 patient/caregiver themes on challenges to optimizing heart failure guideline-directed medical therapy.