Smart with your heart – listening to the message from heart failure patients
Smart with your heart is a pilot project which aims to help reduce the number of people with chronic long term heart failure from being readmitted to hospital.
Up to 70 per cent of people leaving hospital with heart failure are admitted to hospital again within 12 months of going home. This can be due to people gradually becoming more unwell at home and then being unsure of what help is available.
The project will see 300 people recruited to use three digital services to help them understand and manage their own condition with confidence. The pilot will run until 1 January 2020.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) and Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, including the community heart failure team, are working in partnership with digital companies, using their new, commercially available technology to run the pilot.
The first digital service will enable patients to respond to text messages asking how they are feeling compared to their last text message (same, better or worse) and these responses will be recorded by a telehealth co-ordinator.
By doing this, patients will be more closely monitored and will be able to more smoothly access care in the community, should they need it, before they become acutely unwell, reducing the need to return to hospital.
The second digital service will give patients exclusive access to an online health library to help them improve their own self-care behaviours.
The third digital service will refer patients to trusted third sector or voluntary sector organisations, such as bereavement counselling or citizens advice or to offer patients opportunities to engage in community groups and activities such as dance classes, allotment working or walking groups.
The wellbeing of patients and improvements in their quality of life through social prescribing can help reduce GP attendances and improve patients' general physical health.
