Connect@Heart

A Novel Mobile Health Technology Ecosystem for the Treatment and Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: The Connect@Heart Project

Connect@Heart is a digital ecosystem which links existing technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of care for CVD patients. It consists of four components: 1) exchange of health data between wearables, general practitioners and cardiologists; 2) software to identify and follow patients (population health care at the right moment); 3) a dashboard for consultation between doctors; 4) smart technologies at patients’ home. The consortium consists of technology partners (Stizon, Health Base), healthcare insurance company (Zorg&Zekerheid), researchers (LUMC, National eHealth Living Lab), and care partners.

Connect@Heart would create the required platform for general practitioners and primary care practice assistants to treat and follow a vast number of patients, while improving the quality of care and reducing CVD burden through optimisation of risk management programmes. In current practice, a vast number of patients with documented CVD unnecessarily receive chronic treatment in medical specialist practice. More effective risk management programmes in primary care, such as Connect@Heart are likely to reduce the number of patients followed-up in medical specialist practice unnecessarily. This creates the opportunity to reallocate efforts, thus reducing the need for expanding medical specialist practices.

In the Connect@Heart project a feasibility study is performed, implementing the Connect@Heart digital ecosystem in multiple GP practices in the Leiden region. They will include 300 patients in 5 primary care clinics in the Leiden region (Western Netherlands).

The primary outcome is the usability and implementability of Connect@Heart. Secondary outcomes are patient empowerment, time consumption, costs and legal framework.

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Summary
The sustainability of the healthcare care system is under pressure. Connect@Heart is a digital ecosystem which links existing technologies to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of care for cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients. It consists of four components: 1) exchange of health data between wearables, general practitioners and cardiologists; 2) software to identify and follow patients; 3) a dashboard for consultation between doctors; 4) smart technologies at patients’ home.
Technology Readiness Level (TRL)
4 - 7
Time period
24 months
Partners
National eHealth Living Lab
Logo lumc
Health Base
stizon
Huisartsenpraktijk Dillenburg
Zorg en Zekerheid