Project lead: Associate Professor Melinda Carrington and Justin Braver
The current study sought to determine whether a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation program, delivered to patients following a heart disease hospitalization, improved their cardiovascular disease risk factors. As part of this study we also investigated whether participants had a reduction in rehospitalisations, spent fewer days in hospital and improved survival compared to matched controls who undertook either face-to-face cardiac rehabilitation or usual care.
This was the first national and entirely remotely delivered cardiac rehabilitation program in Australia that was provided to privately insured Medibank patients.
Embodied in this work is a qualitative study to explore the perceptions and experiences of patients (and their nurses) who enrolled in the Heart Health at Home program. Further, health economic analysis is being undertaken to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the intervention.
Findings will provide evidence for integrating new technologies into cardiac rehabilitation practice.