Cardiovascular Disease: Heart Failure

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Introduction

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Introduction

Home telehealth for patients with heart failure is generally used in the hope of improving clinical outcomes and reducing burden on the health care system.  The archetypical intervention is designed to enable ongoing patient monitoring: patients are equipped with home telehealth units, given a schedule for data transmission, and contacted by providers when deterioration is […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Key Messages

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Key Messages

There is strong evidence that home telehealth can lead to short-term improvement in functional status.  Research into long-term outcomes is insufficient.   Several strongly designed studies have shown that home telehealth has the potential to reduce mortality significantly more than usual care.  However, many others – also strongly designed – have found that home telehealth […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Scope of Literature

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Scope of Literature

Summary This review sought to collect and interpret the evidence on home telehealth for management of people with heart failure. We looked at 3 areas: Patients: How is home telehealth used in treating people with heart failure?  Do patients like it?  How clinically effective is it? Providers: What is the impact of home telehealth on […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Intervention Design and Implementation

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Intervention Design and Implementation

Summary Home telehealth for patients with heart failure is generally used in the hope of improving clinical outcomes and reducing burden on the health care system.  The archetypical intervention is designed to enable ongoing patient monitoring: patients are equipped with home telehealth units, given a schedule for data transmission, and contacted by providers when deterioration […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Patient Outcomes

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Patient Outcomes

Summary There is strong evidence that significant short-term improvements in functional status are achievable through home telehealth. Evidence of long-term improvement is insufficient.  Our review retrieved only one intervention that lasted longer than four months, and there is some evidence to suggest that improvements in functional status lessen over time.  Further research into long-term outcomes […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Provider Outcomes

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Provider Outcomes

Summary Nurses feature prominently in interventions that use home telehealth for heart failure.  They are usually the first point of contact for the patient and are generally responsible for follow-up as well.  Follow-up may include referral to a physician, but there is considerable variation in the extent to which physicians are direct users of the […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: System Outcomes

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: System Outcomes

Summary The economic effects of home telehealth can be discussed using direct or indirect measures of costs and cost savings.  Direct measures include figures such as cost per patient, cost per telehealth unit, and annual costs.  Examples of indirect measures are probability of patient hospitalization, number of emergency room visits, and other types of health […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Works Cited

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Works Cited

Acosta A, Riley JP, Cowie MR (2011). Integrating remote monitoring to heart failure management. European Journal of Heart Failure, Supplement, 10: S55. Almond C, Latimer J, Brereton NJ, Chapman AM (2011). The budgetary impact of implementing a telehealth home monitoring system for chronic heart failure patients in a typical UK primary care trust. Value in […]

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Master Table

Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure: Master Table

 Click on a column’s arrow to sort by that column.  To view a larger version of the table, click on the icon in its lower right corner. See also Heart Failure – Works Cited.