A Heart Failure Smartphone Application That Nudges Patients/Physicians Toward Optimal Medical Therapy - Development and Usability Study

Kosuke Hayashi; Kenta Hachiya; Keisuke Yonezu; Naoyuki Otani; Kenichi Furuya; Iori Miura; Takashi Tomoe; Takushi Sugiyama; Yasuaki Wada; Naohiko Takahashi; Naoto Uemura

doi:10.1253/circrep.CR-23-0088

A Heart Failure Smartphone Application That Nudges Patients/Physicians Toward Optimal Medical Therapy - Development and Usability Study

Circ Rep. 2023 Nov 29;5(12):459-462. doi: 10.1253/circrep.CR-23-0088. eCollection 2023 Dec 8.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University Yufu Japan.
² Department of Cardiology, Nagoya City University East Medical Center Nagoya Japan.
³ Department of Cardiology and Clinical Examination, Faculty of Medicine, Oita University Yufu Japan.
⁴ Department of Cardiology, Dokkyo Medical University Nikko Medical Center Nikko Japan.
⁵ Faculty of Science and Technology, Oita University Oita Japan.
⁶ Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and Nephrology, Dokkyo Medical University Nikko Medical Center Nikko Japan.

Abstract

Background: The low implementation rate of guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure (HF) remains a problem worldwide. To address this issue, we hypothesized that a smartphone application (app) based on behavioral economics that nudges physicians and patients towards optimal medical therapy would be a scalable approach. Methods and Results: The app prototype was developed, and its usability was tested with 5 HF patients in the outpatient setting. Adherence to the app was outstanding, with a high usability rating from the patients. Conclusions: It appears feasible to further study our app in a larger cohort to evaluate its efficacy.

Keywords: Clinical inertia; Digital therapeutics; Heart failure.