TY - JOUR
T1 - Continuità assistenziale nei pazienti con scompenso cardiaco
T2 - Ruolo delle tecnologie wireless per la telemedicina. II progetto ICAROS
AU - Villani, Alessandra
AU - Malfatto, Gabriella
AU - Della Rosa, Francesco
AU - Branzi, Giovanna
AU - Boarin, Simona
AU - Borghi, Claudio
AU - Cosentino, Eugenio
AU - Gualerzi, Massimo
AU - Coruzzi, Paolo
AU - Molinari, Enrico
AU - Compare, Angelo
AU - Cassi, Maurizio
AU - Collatina, Stefano
AU - Parati, Gianfranco
PY - 2007/2
Y1 - 2007/2
N2 - Healthcare costs for heart failure are increasing. The need for a better care, however, has to be matched with a policy of cost containment. A way to improve the cost-effectiveness of heart failure care is the disease management approach, in which therapy, education and follow-up are tailored for each patient by a multidisciplinary team. Such a complex intervention can be facilitated by the use of telemedicine, which allows the remote control of considerable amounts of clinical data. In Italy, a few studies with telemedicine have been reported. A recent development in this field is represented by the ICAROS project (Integrated Care vs Conventional Intervention in Cardiac Failure Patients: Randomized Open Label Study), whose aim is to improve the clinical and psychological care of heart failure patients employing advanced wireless telecommunication technology. So far, we randomized 60 patients: 30 in usual ambulatory care, 30 in an intensive treatment group. The latter patients were instructed to use a portable computer to get in touch daily with the heart failure clinic and receive feedback instruction for the management of drug therapy and daily problems. At the first year of follow-up, the treatment group showed good compliance to drug prescriptions, and could easily handle the portable computer. The preliminary results of this ongoing study support the feasibility and appropriateness of new technologies for the management of heart failure, even in elderly patients in whom a limited expertise with these appliances could have been anticipated.
AB - Healthcare costs for heart failure are increasing. The need for a better care, however, has to be matched with a policy of cost containment. A way to improve the cost-effectiveness of heart failure care is the disease management approach, in which therapy, education and follow-up are tailored for each patient by a multidisciplinary team. Such a complex intervention can be facilitated by the use of telemedicine, which allows the remote control of considerable amounts of clinical data. In Italy, a few studies with telemedicine have been reported. A recent development in this field is represented by the ICAROS project (Integrated Care vs Conventional Intervention in Cardiac Failure Patients: Randomized Open Label Study), whose aim is to improve the clinical and psychological care of heart failure patients employing advanced wireless telecommunication technology. So far, we randomized 60 patients: 30 in usual ambulatory care, 30 in an intensive treatment group. The latter patients were instructed to use a portable computer to get in touch daily with the heart failure clinic and receive feedback instruction for the management of drug therapy and daily problems. At the first year of follow-up, the treatment group showed good compliance to drug prescriptions, and could easily handle the portable computer. The preliminary results of this ongoing study support the feasibility and appropriateness of new technologies for the management of heart failure, even in elderly patients in whom a limited expertise with these appliances could have been anticipated.
KW - Disease management
KW - Heart failure
KW - Telemedicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34147203257&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=34147203257&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Articolo
C2 - 17402355
AN - SCOPUS:34147203257
VL - 8
SP - 107
EP - 114
JO - Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia
JF - Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia
SN - 1827-6806
IS - 2
ER -