Economic assessment of a telerehabilitation programme for patients with atrial fibrillation

Patients with atrial fibrillation experience symptoms such as palpitations, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, sleep difficulties, anxiety, and they also have an increased risk of blood clots.

PROJECT PERIOD

Start: 2023
End: 2025

Knowledge of atrial fibrillation contributes to patients feeling better informed and more involved in managing their own illness. At present, however, there are no rehabilitation programmes for patients with atrial fibrillation.

AIM

The Future Patient project aims to develop and test a telerehabilitation programme based on the website HjertePortalen.dk, where you can send information about your blood pressure, pulse, steps, sleep and heart rhythm from the patient's home.

The project will examine whether telerehabilitation will result in a better quality of life and understanding of the disease in citizens with atrial fibrillation and their relatives, as well as exploring how anxiety and depression affect the patients in their rehabilitation. This is being investigated in a randomised controlled trial.

CIMT's role in the project is to investigate whether it is cost-effective to offer a telerehabilitation programme based on a health economic assessment of it. Here, the costs associated with the telerehabilitation programme itself are calculated, as well as resource consumption in the health sector for a 6-month period after the patient has started in the programme. It is compared with a possible effect on quality of life.

PARTNERS

Viborg-, Skive & Silkeborg Sundhedscentre
Department of Cardiology and Heart Clinic, Regional Hospitalet Viborg, Skive and Silkeborg
Danish Heart Association
Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, DTU Electro
Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University
Laboratory for Welfare Technology, Department of Health Science and Technology at Aalborg University (AAU)

EXTERNAL FUNDING

In the pilot phase, the project is financed by the Aage and Johanne Louis-Hansen Foundation, the Innovation Fund Central Denmark Region, the Animation Pool Viborg Municipality, as well as co-financing from AAU.

In the second phase, the project is financed by the Danish Heart Association, master carpenter Sophus Jacobsen and wife Astrid Jacobsen's Foundation through the Danish Heart Association, Central Denmark Region, and the partners in the study.