Qualitative analysis of a remote monitoring intervention for managing heart failure

Background: Heart failure (HF) is one of the most common reasons for hospital admission and is a major cause of morbidity, mortality, and increasing health care costs. The EMPOWER study was a randomized trial that used remote monitoring technology to track patients' weight and diuretic adherence and a state-of-the-art approach derived from behavioral economics to motivate adherence to the reverse monitoring technology.

Objective: The goal was to explore patient and clinician perceptions of the program and its impact on perceived health outcomes and better understand why some patients or clinicians did better or worse than others in response to the intervention.

Approach: This was a retrospective qualitative study utilizing semi-structured interviews with 43 patients and 16 clinicians to understand the trial's processes, reflecting on successes and areas for improvement for future iterations of behavioral economic interventions.

Key results: Many patients felt supported, and they appreciated the intervention. Many also appreciated the lottery intervention, and while it was not an incentive for enrolling for many respondents, it may have increased adherence during the study. Clinicians felt that the intervention integrated well into their workflow, but the number of alerts was burdensome. Additionally, responses to alerts varied considerably by provider, perhaps because there are no professional guidelines for alerts unaccompanied by severe symptoms.

Conclusion: Our qualitative analysis indicates potential areas for additional exploration and consideration to design better behavioral economic interventions to improve cardiovascular health outcomes for patients with HF. Patients appreciated lottery incentives for adhering to program requirements; however, many were too far along in their disease progression to benefit from the intervention. Clinicians found the amount and frequency of electronic alerts burdensome and felt they did not improve patient outcomes.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02708654.