Do mobile health applications improve clinical outcomes in patients requiring cardiac care?
Mobile health applications show broad potential for improving cardiac care delivery across various domains, though further studies are needed to confirm their impact on clinical outcomes.
Rapid advances in mobile health technologies and their ubiquitous communication capacity have invigorated remote healthcare delivery. Mobile health applications can help counter the mounting pressure on cardiac services. Patients are increasingly using health and well-being applications, including those for chronic disease monitoring. Population-screening applications are becoming widely used and can have a significant impact on early detection in future. Studies show that cardiology services are using mobile technologies to provide earlier diagnosis through remote transmission and interpretation of ECG, leading to more accurate triage and shorter door-to-balloon time in myocardial infarction. Arrhythmias can be monitored in real time, supported by automated detection algorithms, and implantable device status checks can efficiently and safely be carried out remotely. Ongoing monitoring for and early detection of deterioration in heart failure can also be achieved through mobile applications. Cardiac rehabilitation has been delivered remotely utilizing mobile technologies. Mobile health offers significant potential in providing effective, efficient and appropriately personalized care; however, further studies are required to confirm this. The objective of this review is to explore and describe studies of mobile health applications in cardiac care, including the implications for interventional cardiology, with a focus on clinical outcomes.
Honeyman et al. (2014) studied this question.