Transforming the care of atrial fibrillation with mobile health.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a multifaceted and highly variable disease that is often difficult to manage within the traditional health-care model. The conventional model of regular or pre-scheduled appointments with physicians or allied health professionals is poorly suited to the unpredictable and often urgent clinical needs of patients with AF. Mobile health (mHealth) has the potential to dramatically transform the delivery and quality of AF care. In this brief review, we summarize the current limitations and evidence gaps in treating patients with AF. We then describe the current mHealth landscape, changes in telehealth coverage and reimbursement, and recent technological advances of smartphones, mobile applications, and connected wearable devices. We also describe important barriers and challenges, such as clinical management of large volumes of data, application of predictive analytics/machine learning, and the need for high-quality randomized clinical trials.
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA. mintu@stanford.edu.|Center for Digital Health and Division of Cardiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. mintu@stanford.edu.|Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, 3801 Miranda Ave. -111C, Palo Alto, CA, 94304, USA. mintu@stanford.edu.
Mintu P
MP
Turakhia
Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Daniel W
DW
Kaiser
D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000639:trends*; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000639:trends*; D012648:Self Care / Q000639:trends*; D000068997:Smartphone / Q000639:trends; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States
Atrial fibrillation; Digital health; Mobile apps; Mobile health; Smartphone; Wearables