Building a hybrid virtual cardiac rehabilitation program to promote health equity: Lessons learned

Key features in telehealth-delivered cardiac rehabilitation required to optimize cardiovascular health in coronary heart disease: a systematic review and realist synthesis

Telehealth-delivered cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programmes can potentially increase participation rates while delivering equivalent outcomes to facility-based programmes. However, key components of these interventions that reduce cardiovascular risk factors are not yet distinguished. This study aims to identify features of telehealth-delivered CR that improve secondary prevention outcomes, exercise capacity, participation, and participant satisfaction and develop recommendations for future telehealth-delivered CR. The protocol for our review was registered with the Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (#CRD42021236471). We systematically searched four databases (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Cochrane Database) for randomized controlled trials comparing telehealth-delivered CR programmes to facility-based interventions or usual care. Two independent reviewers screened the abstracts and then full texts. Using a qualitative review methodology (realist synthesis), included articles were evaluated to determine contextual factors and potential mechanisms that impacted cardiovascular risk factors, exercise capacity, participation in the intervention, and increased satisfaction. We included 37 reports describing 26 randomized controlled trials published from 2010 to 2022. Studies were primarily conducted in Europe and Australia/Asia. Identified contextual factors and mechanisms were synthesized into four theories required to enhance participant outcomes and participation. These theories are as follows: (i) early and regular engagement; (ii) personalized interventions and shared goals; (iii) usable, accessible, and supported interventions; and (iv) exercise that is measured and monitored. Providing a personalized approach with frequent opportunities for bi-directional interaction was a critical feature for success across telehealth-delivered CR trials. Real-world effectiveness studies are now needed to complement our findings.

Cardiac Rehabilitation Using the Family-Centered Empowerment Model is Effective in Improving Long-term Mortality in Patients with Myocardial Infarction: A 10-year Follow-Up Randomized Clinical Trial

INTRODUCTION

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) play a critical role in reducing the risk of future cardiovascular events and enhancing the quality of life for individuals who have survived a heart attack.

AIM

To assess the mortality rates and stability of the effects in myocardial infarction (MI) survivors after implementing a Family-Centered Empowerment Model (FCEM)-focused hybrid cardiac rehabilitation program.

METHODS

This double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial, conducted at Shariati Hospital, an academic teaching hospital in Tehran, Iran (2012-2023), involved 70 MI patients and their families. Participants were randomly assigned to an FCEM intervention group or standard CR control group. The intervention commenced after the MI patient's safe discharge from the CCU and continued for the entire 10-year follow-up period. Various questionnaires were utilized to collect data on mortality rates and health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

RESULTS

The 10-year follow-up period revealed lower mortality rates in the intervention group (5.7%, 11.4%, and 17.1% at 5, 7, and 10 years, respectively) compared to the control group (20%, 37.1%, and 48.9%). After adjusting for age, gender, and BMI, the control group had a four times higher mortality risk (HR: 4.346, 95% CI 1.671-7.307, P = 0.003). The FCEM-focused program demonstrated a significant and sustained positive impact on participants' quality of life for 48 months, with greater improvement compared to the control group.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the effectiveness of FCEM-based hybrid CR programs in enhancing long-term patient outcomes and reducing mortality rates among MI survivors. Further research is needed to explore the potential benefits in larger samples and diverse populations.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This study (Identifier: NCT02402582) was registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov on 03/30/2015.

Rationale and Design of the mTECH-Rehab Randomized Controlled Trial: Impact of a Mobile Technology Enabled Corrie Cardiac Rehabilitation Program on Functional Status and Cardiovascular Health

BACKGROUND

Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an evidence-based, guideline-recommended intervention for patients recovering from a cardiac event, surgery or procedure that improves morbidity, mortality, and functional status. CR is traditionally provided in-center, which limits access and engagement, most notably among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups due to barriers including cost, scheduling, and transportation access. This study is designed to evaluate the Corrie Hybrid CR, a technology-based, multicomponent health equity-focused intervention as an alternative to traditional in-center CR among patients recovering from a cardiac event, surgery, or procedure compared with usual care alone.

METHODS

The mTECH-Rehab (Impact of a Mobile Technology Enabled Corrie CR Program) trial will randomize 200 patients who either have diagnosis of myocardial infarction or who undergo coronary artery bypass grafting surgery, percutaneous coronary intervention, heart valve repair, or replacement presenting to 4 hospitals in a large academic health system in Maryland, United States, to the Corrie Hybrid CR program combined with usual care CR (intervention group) or usual care CR alone (control group) in a parallel arm, randomized controlled trial. The Corrie Hybrid CR program leverages 5 components: (1) a patient-facing mobile application that encourages behavior change, patient empowerment, and engagement with guideline-directed therapy; (2) Food and Drug Administration-approved smart devices that collect health metrics; (3) 2 upfront in-center CR sessions to facilitate personalization, self-efficacy, and evaluation for the safety of home exercise, followed by a combination of in-center and home-based sessions per participant preference; (4) a clinician dashboard to track health data; and (5) weekly virtual coaching sessions delivered over 12 weeks for education, encouragement, and risk factor modification. The primary outcome is the mean difference between the intervention versus control groups in distance walked on the 6-minute walk test (ie, functional capacity) at 12 weeks post randomization. Key secondary and exploratory outcomes include improvement in a composite cardiovascular health metric, CR engagement, quality of life, health factors (including low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c, weight, diet, smoking cessation, blood pressure), and psychosocial factors. Approval for the study was granted by the local institutional review board. Results of the trial will be published once data collection and analysis have been completed.

CONCLUSIONS

The Corrie Hybrid CR program has the potential to improve functional status, cardiovascular health, and CR engagement and advance equity in access to cardiac rehabilitation.

REGISTRATION

URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT05238103.

A clinician's guide to addressing cardiovascular health based on a revised AHA framework

The American Heart Association recently published updates to its definition of cardiovascular health (CVH) in its Presidential Advisory called Life's Essential 8. In particular, the update from Life's Simple 7 added a new component of sleep duration and refined definitions of prior components, including measurement of diet, nicotine exposure, blood lipids, and blood glucose. Physical activity, BMI, and blood pressure were unchanged. Together, these eight components create a composite CVH score that clinicians, policy-makers, patients, communities, and businesses can utilize to communicate in a consistent way. Life's Essential 8 also emphasizes the critical role of addressing social determinants of health to improve these individual CVH components, which strongly correlate with future cardiovascular outcomes. This framework should be used across the life spectrum including during pregnancy and childhood to allow improvements in and prevention of CVH at critical time-points. Clinicians can use this framework to advocate for digital health technologies and societal policies that help address and more seamlessly measure the 8 components of CVH with the goal of increasing quality and quantity of life.

The evolution of digital health technologies in cardiovascular disease research

When implemented in practice, digital technologies have shown improvements in morbidity and mortality outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). For scholars, research into digital technologies in cardiovascular care has been relatively recent, thus it is important to understand the history of digital health technology in cardiovascular research-its emergence, rate of growth, hot topics, and its temporal evolution. The aim of this study was to analyse more than 16,000 articles in this domain based on their scientometric indicators. Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection was accessed and searched at several levels, including titles, abstracts, keywords, authors, sources and individual articles. Analysis examined the temporal shifts in research and scholarly focus based on keywords, networks of collaboration, topical divisions in relation to digital technologies, and influential publications. Findings showed this research area is growing exponentially. Co-citation analysis revealed twenty prominent research streams and identified variation in the magnitude of activities in each stream. A recent emergence of research activities in digital technology in cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR), out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), and arrythmia research was also demonstrated. Conversely, wearable technologies, activity tracking and electronic medical records research are now past their peak of reported research activity. With increasing amounts of novel technologies becoming available and more patients taking part in remote health care monitoring, further evaluation and research into digital technologies, including their long-term effectiveness, is needed. Furthermore, emerging technologies, which are evaluated and/or validated should be considered for implementation into clinical practice as treatment and prevention modalities for CVD.