Design, development and evaluation of a Telemonitoring System for Heart Failure patients

• Autores: Yanicelli, Lucía María; Vegetti, Marcela; Martínez, Ernesto
• Año de publicación: 2020
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: documento de conferencia
• Materia: Ciencias Informáticas; Telemedicine; mHealth; Telemonitoring; Health informatics; Clinical practice guidelines
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Objective: Heart Failure (HF) is a chronic and lifestyle-related disease that affects patient’s quality of life. In the last years, telemonitoring systems (TSs) have been promoted as a strategy for HF management. However, the distinctive requirements that a TS should have, have not been clearly identified. To this aim, the most relevant requirements for telemonitoring of HF patients are derived from evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs). The main objective of this work is to design, develop and evaluate a TS for HF patients, named SiTe iC, using widely accepted CPGs. Methods: CPGs were thoroughly reviewed to pinpoint key functional requirements of TSs. Interviews with HF patients and specialist physicians in HF were performed to design the system. Results: The functional requirements of TSs for HF patients were established. A TS (SiTe iC) was designed and programmed. The system was thoroughly assessed through a clinical trial that demonstrates that telemonitoring using SiTe iC actually improves patient’s self-care when compared to usual care and it has the potential to avoid HF re-hospitalizations. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the identified functional requirements for TSs are relevant. In addition, thanks to SiTe iC, HF patients took an active role in their disease management.
Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativa