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Review
. 2023 Jun 2:10:1155861.
doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2023.1155861. eCollection 2023.

ehealth technology in cardiac exercise therapeutics for pediatric patients with congenital and acquired heart conditions: a summary of evidence and future directions

David A White  1   2 , Aimee M Layton  3 , Tracy Curran  4 , Naomi Gauthier  4 , William B Orr  5 , Kendra Ward  6 , Meg Vernon  7 , Matthew N Martinez  8 , Malloree C Rice  9 , Katherine Hansen  4 , Megan Prusi  10 , Jesse E Hansen  10
Affiliations
Review

ehealth technology in cardiac exercise therapeutics for pediatric patients with congenital and acquired heart conditions: a summary of evidence and future directions

David A White et al. Front Cardiovasc Med. .

Abstract

Many children and adolescents with congenital and acquired heart disease (CHD) are physically inactive and participate in an insufficient amount of moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise. Although physical activity (PA) and exercise interventions are effective at improving short- and long-term physiological and psychosocial outcomes in youth with CHD, several barriers including resource limitations, financial costs, and knowledge inhibit widespread implementation and dissemination of these beneficial programs. New and developing eHealth, mHealth, and remote monitoring technologies offer a potentially transformative and cost-effective solution to increase access to PA and exercise programs for youth with CHD, yet little has been written on this topic. In this review, a cardiac exercise therapeutics (CET) model is presented as a systematic approach to PA and exercise, with assessment and testing guiding three sequential PA and exercise intervention approaches of progressive intensity and resource requirements: (1) PA and exercise promotion within a clinical setting; (2) unsupervised exercise prescription; and (3) medically supervised fitness training intervention (i.e., cardiac rehabilitation). Using the CET model, the goal of this review is to summarize the current evidence describing the application of novel technologies within CET in populations of children and adolescents with CHD and introduce potential future applications of these technologies with an emphasis on improving equity and access to patients in low-resource settings and underserved communities.

Keywords: cardiac rehabilitation; exercise prescription; pediatric cardiology; technology; telehealth; wearable devices.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cardiac exercise therapeutics (CET) model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Theoretical schema representing CET intervention tiers, and resources, expertise, and relative numbers of patients to be served at each level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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