JMIR Cardio

Virtual care has historically faced barriers to widespread adoption. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the rapid adoption and expansion of virtual care technologies. Although the intense and prolonged nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has renewed people’s interest in health systems resilience, which includes how services adapt or transform in response to shocks, evidence regarding the role of virtual care technologies in health systems resilience is scarce.

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a condition in which a person’s airway is obstructed during sleep, thus disturbing their sleep. People with OSA are at a higher risk of developing heart problems. OSA is commonly treated with a positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy device, which is used during sleep. The PAP therapy setup provides a good opportunity to monitor the heart health of people with OSA, but no simple, low-cost method is available for the PAP therapy device to monitor heart rate (HR).

Heart failure (HF) management guided by the measurement of intracardiac and pulmonary pressure values obtained through innovative permanent intracardiac microsensors has been recently proposed as a valid strategy to individualize treatment and anticipate hemodynamic destabilization. These sensors have potential to reduce patient hospitalization rates and optimize quality of life.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in the adult population. AF is associated with a poor quality of life (QoL) and, in many patients, current medical treatments are inadequate in alleviating AF symptoms (eg, palpitations). Patients often present with symptom preoccupation in terms of symptom fear, avoidance, and control behaviors. Internet-delivered cognitive behavior therapy is effective for treating other somatic disorders but has never been evaluated in patients with AF.

The internet has become a popular platform for patients to obtain information and to review the health care providers they interact with. However, little is known about the digital footprint of vascular surgeons and their interactions with patients on social media.

Current atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) predictive models have limitations; thus, efforts are underway to improve the discriminatory power of ASCVD models.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia during critical illness, representing a sepsis-defining cardiac dysfunction associated with adverse outcomes. Large burdens of premature beats and noisy signal during sepsis may pose unique challenges to automated AF detection.

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are at a higher risk for atrial fibrillation (AF). Consumer wearable heart rate (HR) sensors may be a means for passive HR monitoring in patients with AF.

The use of mobile health (mHealth) interventions, including smartphone apps, for the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has demonstrated mixed results for obesity, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and hypertension management. A major factor attributing to the variation in mHealth study results may be mHealth user engagement.

The rise of COVID-19 and the issue of a mandatory stay-at-home order in March 2020 led to the use of a direct-to-consumer model for cardiology telehealth in Kentucky. Kentucky has poor health outcomes and limited broadband connectivity. Given these and other practice-specific constraints, the region serves as a unique context to explore the efficacy of telehealth in cardiology.

The complex 3-dimensional (3D) nature of anatomical abnormalities in congenital heart disease (CHD) necessitates multidisciplinary group discussions centered around the review of medical images such as magnetic resonance imaging. Currently, group viewings of medical images are constrained to 2-dimensional (2D) cross-sectional displays of 3D scans. However, 2D display methods could introduce additional challenges since they require physicians to accurately reconstruct the images mentally into 3D anatomies for diagnosis, staging, and planning of surgery or other therapies. Virtual reality (VR) software may enhance diagnosis and care of CHD via 3D visualization of medical images. Yet, present-day VR developments for medicine lack the emphasis on multiuser collaborative environments, and the effect of displays and level of immersion for diagnosing CHDs have not been studied.

Solid organ transplantation could be the only life-saving treatment for end-stage heart failure. Nevertheless, multimorbidity and polypharmacy remain major problems after heart transplant. A technology-based behavioral intervention model was established to improve clinical practice in a heart transplant outpatient setting. To support the new strategy, the mHeart app, a mobile health (mHealth) tool, was developed for use by patients and providers.