Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .
Telephone support to rural and remote patients with heart failure: the Chronic Heart Failure Assessment by Telephone (CHAT) study.
BACKGROUND Heart failure ( HF ) remains a condition with high morbidity and mortality . We tested a telephone support strategy to reduce major events in rural and remote Australians with HF , who have limited healthcare access . Telephone support comprised an interactive telecommunication software tool ( TeleWatch ) with follow-up by trained cardiac nurses . METHODS Patients with a general practice ( GP ) diagnosis of HF were r and omized to usual care ( UC ) or UC and telephone support intervention ( UC+I ) using a cluster design involving 143 GPs throughout Australia . Patients were followed up for 12 months . The primary endpoint was the Packer clinical composite score . Secondary endpoints included hospitalization for any cause , death or hospitalization , as well as HF hospitalization . RESULTS Four hundred and five patients were r and omized to CHAT . Patients were well matched at baseline for key demographic variables . The primary endpoint of the Packer score was not different between the two groups ( P = 0.98 ) , although more patients improved with UC+I. There were fewer patients hospitalized for any cause ( 74 vs. 114 , adjusted HR 0.67 [ 95 % CI 0.50 - 0.89 ] , P = 0.006 ) and who died or were hospitalized ( 89 vs. 124 , adjusted HR 0.70 [ 95 % CI 0.53 - 0.92 ] , P = 0.011 ) , in the UC+I vs. UC group . HF hospitalizations were reduced with UC+I ( 23 vs. 35 , adjusted HR 0.81 [ 95 % CI 0.44 - 1.38 ] ) , although this was not significant ( P = 0.43 ) . There were 16 deaths in the UC group and 17 in the UC+I group ( P = 0.43 ) . CONCLUSIONS Although no difference was observed in the primary endpoint of CHAT ( Packer composite score ) , UC+I significantly reduced the number of HF patients hospitalized among a rural and remote cohort . These data suggest that telephone support may be an efficacious approach to improve clinical outcomes in rural and remote HF patients
Overall , telemedicine was shown to be beneficial , with home-based teletransmission effectively reducing all-cause mortality and HF-related hospital admission , length of stay and mortality in patients with HF
Telemedicine interventions may be associated with reductions in hospital admission rate and mortality in patients with heart failure ( HF ) .