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Published on: April 19, 2019
Initial Outcomes of CardioClick, a Telehealth Program for Preventive Cardiac Care: Observational Study
Neil M Kalwani1,2,3, Austin N Johnson4, Vijaya Parameswaran1
1Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States.
Insights
Telehealth programs like CardioClick improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention by increasing patient engagement and program completion rates. This virtual care model effectively reduces CVD risk factors, matching in-person care outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Digital Health
- Preventive Medicine
Background:
- Telehealth adoption is rising in specialty clinics.
- Evidence on telehealth for primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate initial outcomes of CardioClick, a telehealth primary CVD prevention program.
- Assess patient engagement and CVD risk factor changes.
Main Methods:
- CardioClick pathway replaced in-person visits with video visits in a preventive cardiology clinic.
- Compared outcomes of 118 CardioClick patients with 441 historical in-person patients.
- Assessed program completion rates and changes in CVD risk factors.
Main Results:
- CardioClick patients had higher program completion rates (64.4% vs 39.2%) and shorter completion times (250 vs 307 days).
- Achieved reductions in blood pressure, lipid concentrations, and BMI comparable to or better than in-person care.
- Telehealth demonstrated increased patient engagement.
Conclusions:
- Telehealth is effective for delivering care in preventive cardiology.
- Virtual care models may enhance patient engagement in CVD prevention.
- Further research is needed to define the optimal role of telehealth in diverse preventive medicine settings.
Background:
Telehealth use has increased in specialty clinics, but there is limited evidence on the outcomes of telehealth in primary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the initial outcomes of CardioClick, a telehealth primary CVD prevention program.
Methods:
In 2017, the Stanford South Asian Translational Heart Initiative (a preventive cardiology clinic focused on high-risk South Asian patients) introduced CardioClick, which is a clinical pathway replacing in-person follow-up visits with video visits. We assessed patient engagement and changes in CVD risk factors in CardioClick patients and in a historical in-person cohort from the same clinic.
Results:
In this study, 118 CardioClick patients and 441 patients who received in-person care were included. CardioClick patients were more likely to complete the clinic's CVD prevention program (76/118, 64.4% vs 173/441, 39.2%, respectively; P<.001) and they did so in lesser time (mean, 250 days vs 307 days, respectively; P<.001) than the patients in the historical in-person cohort. Patients who completed the CardioClick program achieved reductions in CVD risk factors, including blood pressure, lipid concentrations, and BMI, which matched or exceeded those observed in the historical in-person cohort.
Conclusions:
Telehealth can be used to deliver care effectively in a preventive cardiology clinic setting and may result in increased patient engagement. Further studies on telehealth outcomes are needed to determine the optimal role of virtual care models across diverse preventive medicine clinics.
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