JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Telemonitoring enables care providers to remotely support outpatients in self-managing chronic heart failure (CHF), but little is known about usability and patients’ willingness to engage with this technology.

Objective:

To evaluate patients’ feedback following participation in the Innovative Telemonitoring Enhanced Care program for CHF (ITEC-CHF) study.

Methods:

Survey feedback on the usability of ITEC-CHF was collected in participants following 6 months of telemonitoring of their body weight. Responses were provided on a five-point Likert-scale and through and open-ended questions to determine the perceived benefits and barriers to using ITEC-CHF.

Results:

67 participants (73% male), aged 69.8 ± 12.4 completed the survey. The majority of participants agreed or strongly agreed that the ITEC-CHF program was easy to use (91%), easy to navigate (78%), useful (91%), and made them feel more confident in managing their weight (85%). Themes related to participants’ perceptions of telemonitoring included: (1) increased support for early intervention of clinical deterioration; (2) improved compliance with daily weighing; (3) a sense of reassurance; (4) improved self-care and accountability.

Conclusions:

ITEC-CHF was rated highly on usability and was well accepted by users as part of their routine self-management activities. Participants were willing to use telemonitoring because they perceived many benefits for CHF management. Clinical Trial: This study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki. The clinical trial protocol was approved by the Health Human Research Ethics Committee in Victoria (HREC Reference: HREC/14/PH/27), and Western Australia (Reference: 15-081, and Reference: HR 181/2014), Australia. The trial was registered with Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (Trial ID: ACTRN 12614000916640; https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=366691). Informed consent was obtained from the participants in the trial.