The Care Assessment Platform, an ICT-supported home-based cardiac rehabilitation program, demonstrated high usage rates and participant acceptance in preliminary evaluations.
Observational
Does a technology-assisted home-care cardiac rehabilitation program (CAP) achieve high usage and acceptance among patients with cardiovascular disease?
An ICT-supported home-based cardiac rehabilitation program shows preliminary high usage and acceptance, potentially improving access for patients in metropolitan and remote settings.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease, a major cause of disease burden in Australia and other developed countries, is increasing due to a rapidly ageing population and environmental, biomedical and modifiable lifestyle factors. Although cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programs have been shown to be beneficial and effective, rates of referral, uptake and utilisation of traditional hospital or community centre programs are poor. Home-based CR programs have been shown to be as effective as centre-based programs, and recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to enhance the delivery of such programs. The Care Assessment Platform (CAP) is an integrated home-based CR model incorporating ICT (including a mobile phone and the internet) and providing all the core components of traditional CR (education, physical activity, exercise training, behaviour modification strategies and psychological counselling). The mobile phone given to patients has an integrated accelerometer and diary application for recording exercise and health information. A central database, with access to these data, allows mentors to assess patients' progress, assist in setting goals, revise targets and give weekly personal feedback. Mentors find the mobile-phone modalities practical and easy to use, and preliminary results show high usage rates and acceptance of ICT by participants. The provision of ICT-supported home-based CR programs may enable more patients in both metropolitan and remote settings to benefit from CR.
Varnfield et al. (Tue,) conducted a observational in Cardiovascular disease. Care Assessment Platform (CAP) was evaluated on Usage rates and acceptance of ICT. The Care Assessment Platform, an ICT-supported home-based cardiac rehabilitation program, demonstrated high usage rates and participant acceptance in preliminary evaluations.