A Mobile Application for Self-Monitoring for Patients with Heart Failure

Abstract

Patients suffering from heart failure disease have to regularly measure and document health data such as weight and blood pressure. Currently, the data gets lost or is not recorded on a regular basis due to missing reminders and lack of motivation in patients. To address these problems, we introduce a concept for an electronic heart diary (EHD), a mobile application that supports in data collection and motivates the patient. The requirements towards a digital heart diary were collected in discussions with stakeholders in a collaborating hospital. The EHD, allows patients to record their measurement data or even transfer it from a health device to the app. The data is stored in a database that can be accessed with permission of a patient by health professionals through a web application for monitoring purposes. In this way, a worsening of the disease can be detected in an early stage and actions can be taken. This can increase patient safety and prevent rehospitalisation. For motivation and supporting a long-term use of the app, we included methods for gamification and nudging into the application.

Keywords: Self-monitoring; cardiology; gamification; heart failure.