Early Experience with a Telehealth Platform in LVAD Patients

Abstract

Telehealth has the potential to improve health care delivery by simplifying communication between providers and patients. This technology is well suited to LVAD patients because of the need for close monitoring and ease of access to the LVAD team for patients in remote areas. In this study, we describe our early experience with a novel telehealth platform that was designed specifically for LVAD patients. In conjunction with Medocity Inc, we developed a platform that included daily VAD parameter logs, medication adherence, video-messaging, and instructional videos. We recruited 25 LVAD patients to utilize the platform on a daily basis. Patients were expected to login daily and enter their LVAD parameters, answer daily health questions, and enter medication compliance in the virtual pillbox. Patients also were given the option to review educational videos, message providers with concerns, as well as review their LVAD parameters to monitor for outliers. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction measured by a patient centered survey. Secondary outcomes were 30 day readmission and 30 day patient engagement. 22 out of the 25 patients completed the end of survey study (1 refused, 2 wrong survey). Table 1 summarizes the responses; which notably includes over 90% of respondents stating that the application helps them feel more in control of their care. A sampling of comments: Being able to track my LVAD makes me more aware of the LVAD function. Very beneficial and easy access daily data records and allows faster communication from LVAD Coordinator I felt safe knowing that I was being monitored. Patient engagement was defined as: days logged into platform/days out of hospital. The average engagement was 71% for the first 30 days. There were 6 readmissions (23%) in the first 30 days. Our institutional 30 day readmission benchmark is 25%. Telehealth applications can improve patient satisfaction through greater connectedness with their LVAD team. Its potential for reducing readmissions should be tested in a larger prospective study.