Patient engagement with digital disease management and readmission rates: The case of congestive heart failure. (August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gjeka, Rudin; Patel, Kirit; Reddy, Chandra; Zetsche, Nora
• Is Part Of: Health informatics journal. Volume 27:Number 3(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Subjects: congestive heart failure -- digital disease management -- eCardiology -- mHealth -- remote patient monitoring; Medical informatics -- Periodicals; 610.285
• DOI: 10.1177/14604582211030959
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1460-4582

Abstract

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the most common diagnoses in the elderly United States Medicare (⩾ age 65) population. This patient population has a particularly high readmission rate, with one estimate of the 6-month readmission rate topping 40%. The rapid rise of mobile health (mHealth) presents a promising new pathway for reducing hospital readmissions of CHF, and, more generally, the management of chronic conditions. Using a randomized research design and a multivariate regression model, we evaluated the effectiveness of a hybrid mHealth model—the integration of remote patient monitoring with an applied health technology and digital disease management platform—on 45-day hospital readmissions for patients diagnosed with CHF. We find a 78% decrease in the likelihood of CHF hospital readmission for patients who were assigned to the digital disease management platform as compared to patients assigned to control.