Technology based home-care model improves outcomes of uptake, adherence and health in cardiac rehabilitation

The Care Assessment Platform (CAP) is a mobile phone and internet technology based home-care cardiac rehabilitation (CR) service model developed to improve patient uptake and adherence compared to traditional CR programs. Methods: Post myocardial infarction patients (n = 120, age 56±10 yrs, 100 males)were randomised into hospitalbased (Control, n = 60) and CAP home-care (Intervention, n = 60) CR. The CAP was utilised for health and exercise monitoring, delivery of motivational and educational materials and messages to patients and sharing follow-up information with a case mentor over aninternet portal.The case mentor provided weekly consultations over the sixweek CR program. Uptake and adherencewere measured as well as health outcomes including functional capacity (6-minute walk test (6MWT), anthropometric and blood lipid profile, and emotional state (DASS21 Questionnaire). Results: Uptake in the Intervention group was significantly better than Controls (87% (n = 52) vs. 67% (n = 40) and the adherence rate was significantly higher in the Intervention (92%) than the Control (70%) group. There was significant improvement in the 6MWT walk distance from baseline to six weeks for both groups 543.8±80.3-594.2±74.3m and 509.9±76.9-569.6±80.5 m,respectively. Significant reductions in weight (88.9±20.4-87.9±20.7 kg) and triglyceride levels (1.26±0.75-1.11±0.68 mmol/L) were observed in the Intervention group. Emotional state also improved significantly in the Intervention group withDASS21 scores of median2, IQR6 to median0, IQR3 in both. Conclusion: The CAP service model demonstrated increased uptake and completion rate of CR programs compared to the traditional centre-based CR program, resulting in improvement in the over-all CR participation.