Cardiac rehabilitation is a programme of supervised exercise prescribed to people with CHD when they’re discharged from hospital. The patients attend weekly sessions at a local hospital or community centre. The benefits of the programme are clear – it improves quality of life, reduces readmission to hospital and the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Despite these benefits, the uptake of cardiac rehabilitation is low, with only around half of those who are prescribed it actually attending the sessions. There also tends to be a significant delay between discharge from hospital and starting the rehabilitation, which may well be contributing to the limited uptake.

The new research, led by Professor Helen Jones, will use mobile health technology (mhealth) to provide a bridging solution between hospital discharge and supervised rehabilitation. This will allow patients to start a homebased walking programme soon after they are discharged from hospital. Using a combination of an app, smartphone and a wearable tracking device, they’ll be able to track their own exercise whilst also receiving advice and feedback from trained exercise professionals. The participants will also be asked to measure their blood pressure, weight and how they’re feeling in themselves.

The study will involve two groups, one will receive standard care and the other will be testing the mhealth intervention. The researchers will then establish whether this technology improves both uptake of cardiac rehab and overall wellbeing in patients.

The new technology has the potential to encourage more people to attend cardiac rehabilitation sessions, helping the NHS to increase the uptake to 85% by 2028. This could in turn improve the quality of life and overall outcome for patients with CHD.