Complete
Our goal
To improve cardiac rehabilitation completion rates by incorporating digital solutions.
About the project
The Digital Cardiac Rehab project aimed to improve attendance and completion of cardiac rehab (CR) through a digital cardiac rehab platform, Cardihab®, for patients in regional Victoria who had experienced an acute cardiac event.
The platform included a web portal for clinicians and a smartphone application for patients. Patients could access CR with an app, at a time and location suitable for them, rather than having to travel regularly to outpatient rehab services. Clinicians had weekly contact with patients and monitored their progress towards achieving recovery goals.
Outcomes
1,618 patients participated in the pilot, with 290 patients receiving CR through Cardihab®. The pilot was successful in improving CR accessibility, particularly for regional patients who would otherwise not be able to attend in-person appointments due to distance or time constraints. Patients who attended digital CR experienced slightly shorter wait times between hospital discharge and commencing a CR program (25 days) compared to patients who attended face-to-face CR (27 days).
While patients and clinicians agreed that the digital platform was a useful alternative for some patients, clinicians found that the digital platform’s lack of a physical exercise component and option to deliver services in languages other than English limited their ability to engage with patients.
To read more about the project and the results, see our summary report.
Summary report
Learn more about how we partnered with hospitals to support the care and recovery of regional Victorians after a heart attack or heart surgery.
Resources
Our expert panel discusses the barriers to referral and participation in cardiac rehab and how Safer Care Victoria’s digital cardiac rehab pilot project is trying to address these gaps in five regional Victorian health services.