Dive Brief:
- A new study from the Mayo Clinic found that patient use of a smartphone app in cardiac rehab helped cut ED visits and hospital readmissions by 40%.
- To do the study, Mayo Clinic researchers designed an online and smartphone-based mobile app for patients undergoing rehab for stent placements after heart attacks. The app tracked patients' blood pressure, dietary and sugar levels, physical activity and weight, along with providing educational content on how to avoid future cardiac problems.
- Researchers found that about 20% of patients who used the app were either admitted to an ED within 90 days or readmitted to the hospital, as compared with about 60% of patients who received traditional rehab.
Dive Insight:
Increasingly, health organizations are finding ways to make use of the sophisticated capabilities of tablets and smartphones to help improve patient outcomes. The results this app and online technology accomplished are particularly striking, but there is little doubt that equally impressive gains can be made in other areas with well-designed apps attuned to the end-user population.