Remote care for cardiac patients: include their social environment

Partners, children, and other people close to a patient play an important role in the recovery and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Yet digital remote care often still focuses primarily on the patient. Research partly funded by Medical Delta highlights the importance of the patient’s social environment.

In new research conducted as part of the scientific program Healthy Society in Medical Delta: lifestyle & prevention, the experiences of cardiac patients and their loved ones with remote care, also known as ‘Remote Patient Management’ or RPM, were mapped out.

Most health-related behaviour and recovery take place at home, within the patient’s social environment. It is precisely outside the hospital that important needs appear to be insufficiently met, particularly before a procedure and during the initial recovery period at home. These needs mainly concern a lack of information and psycho-emotional support.

A broader perspective on remote care

The publication translates these needs into concrete forms of remote support and outlines a nine-step strategy for their further development, implementation, and scale-up. This calls for a broader perspective on remote care: moving from Remote Patient Management to ‘Remote Patient and Family Management’. This approach supports not only the patient, but also the people at home who help provide care, think along with them, and share in their experience.

Read the full publication here.

The research was conducted by Medical Delta PhD candidate Julian Houwen, Dr Veronica Janssen (program leader of Medical Delta Program ‘Owning your health’ ), Medical Delta professors Prof. dr. Niels Chavannes, Prof. dr. Maaike Kleinsmann, and Prof. dr. Douwe Atsma (also core team members of the Medical Delta Program ‘Owning your health’), Sara Hondmann, and Dr. ir. Valeria Pannunzio.