Use of Human-Centered Design Methodology to Develop a Digital Toolkit to Optimize Heart Failure Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy.
Erin M Spaulding, Nino Isakadze, Nancy Molello and 18 others
PMID 37855732WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians, patients, and caregivers described post-discharge heart failure care as complicated by vague symptoms, medication changes, diet, exercise, and confusing transitions.
They proposed education, tracking, peer support, and clinician dashboards. These are ideas, not tested treatments.
Key findings
01Clinicians reported five themes about barriers to optimizing heart failure medications: logistics, patient buy-in, hospitalization and discharge challenges, clinician inertia, and remote data use.
02Patients and a caregiver reported six challenge themes: vague symptoms, hospital-to-home transition, diet change, exercise, medication management, and multiple chronic conditions.
03Participants recommended educational materials, peer support platforms, patient tracking tools, and a clinician dashboard for the digital toolkit.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 10 clinicians, 3 patients, and 1 caregiver participated in the sessions. Ten patients and 2 caregivers were enrolled, but 8 were lost to follow-up or withdrew. Patients and caregivers needed access to a computer, tablet, or smartphone, which may exclude people without internet or devices. The clinicians were only advanced practice providers and physicians associated with heart failure clinics, so views of pharmacists, general cardiologists, internists, and other clinicians were not included. The clinicians were generally younger and identified only as White and Asian, and the patients and caregiver were well-educated, employed, and insured, so experiences of older, Black, lower-income, or uninsured people may be missing. The study did not test the toolkit or report patient outcomes.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include a funding or conflict-of-interest declaration. The article metadata lists research support, N.I.H., Extramural, and research support, non-U.S. government.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that the digital toolkit improves heart failure medication optimization or patient outcomes. The study reports stakeholder themes and proposed components, and the toolkit will be evaluated later.