JMIR Cardio

The number of patients with cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) is increasing, creating a substantial workload for device clinics.

An acute cardiac incident is a life-changing event that often necessitates surgery. Although surgery has high success rates, rehabilitation, behavioral changes, and self-care are critical to long-term health. Recent systematic reviews have highlighted the potential of technology in this area; however, significant shortcomings have also been identified, particularly with regard to patient experience.

The emergence of smartphones and wearable sensor technologies enables easy and unobtrusive monitoring of physiological and psychological data related to an individual’s resilience. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a promising biomarker for resilience based on between-subject population studies, but observational studies that apply a within-subject design and use wearable sensors in order to observe HRV in a naturalistic real-life context are needed.

Although men are more prone to developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) than women, risk factors for CVD, such as nicotine abuse and diabetes mellitus, have been shown to be more detrimental in women than in men.

Telemonitoring enables care providers to remotely support outpatients in self-managing chronic heart failure (CHF), but little is known about the usability and patients’ willingness to engage with this technology.

Telehealth use has increased in specialty clinics, but there is limited evidence on the outcomes of telehealth in primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention.

The burden of time is often the primary reason why patients discontinue their treatment. Telemedicine may help patients adhere to treatment by offering convenience.

A promising new approach to support lifestyle changes in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the use of financial incentives. Although financial incentives have proven to be effective, their implementation remains controversial, and ethical objections have been raised. It is unknown whether health care professionals (HCPs) involved in CVD care find it acceptable to provide financial incentives to patients with CVD as support for lifestyle change.

Cardiac arrhythmias are a leading cause of death. The mainstay method for diagnosing arrhythmias (eg, atrial fibrillation) and cardiac conduction disorders (eg, prolonged corrected QT interval [QTc]) is by using 12-lead electrocardiography (ECG). Handheld 12-lead ECG devices are emerging in the market. In tandem with emerging technology options, evaluations of device usability should go beyond validation of the device in a controlled laboratory setting and assess user perceptions and experiences, which are crucial for successful implementation in clinical practice.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common predisposing factors for ischemic stroke worldwide. Because of this, patients with AF are prescribed anticoagulant medications to decrease the risk. The availability of different options for oral anticoagulation makes it difficult for some patients to decide a preferred choice of medication. Clinical guidelines often recommend enhancing the decision-making process of patients by increasing their involvement in health decisions. In particular, the use of patient decision aids (PDAs) in patients with AF was associated with increased knowledge and increased likelihood of making a choice. However, the majority of available PDAs are from Western countries.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is predicted to more than double in prevalence over the next 20 years. Tailored patient education is recommended as an important aspect of AF care. Current guidelines emphasize that patients become more active participants in the management of their own disease, yet there are no rehabilitation programs for patients with AF in the Danish health care system. Through participatory design, we developed the Future Patient Telerehabilitation (TR) Programs, A and B, for patients with AF. The 2 programs are based on HeartPortal and remote monitoring, together with educational modules.

More than 37 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with heart failure, which is a growing burden on the health sector. Cardiac rehabilitation aims to improve patients’ recovery, functional capacity, psychosocial well-being, and health-related quality of life. However, cardiac rehabilitation programs have poor compliance and adherence. Telerehabilitation may be a solution to overcome some of these challenges to cardiac rehabilitation by making it more individualized. As part of the Future Patient Telerehabilitation program, a digital toolbox aimed at enabling patients with heart failure to monitor and evaluate their own current status has been developed and tested using data from a patient-reported outcome questionnaire that the patient filled in every alternate week for 1 year.