Elderly Medication Adherence Intervention Using the My Interventional Drug-Eluting Stent Educational App: Multisite Randomized Feasibility Trial.

BACKGROUND: A lifesaving treatment for myocardial infarction is the placement of a stent in a closed or obstructed coronary artery. The largest modifiable risk factor after receiving a stent is medication adherence to Dual AntiPlatelet Therapy, a combination of P2Y12 inhibitors and aspirin. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the acceptability of a protocol and an intervention using the My Interventional Drug-Eluting Stent Educational App (MyIDEA) and to evaluate medication adherence using the proportion of days covered (PDC) and platelet activation tests in a multisite randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Potential participants who received a post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedure with a drug-eluting stent were approached. All patients older than 50 years and who spoke English were recruited. Participants were recruited, baseline demographics were collected, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine-Short Form, Burden-Benefit questionnaire, 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, and PCI knowledge questionnaire were administered. Block randomization was used to randomize participants to either usual care or MyIDEA supplementation. MyIDEA is a personalized educational intervention based on the Kolb experiential learning theory using patient narratives for education. During the visits, participants' blood was collected to measure platelet suppression from medication. During the second and third encounters, the Morisky medication adherence score and cardiology outcomes were measured. The study was conducted at the University of Illinois Hospital and John H Stroger Jr Cook County Hospital with appropriate ethical approvals. Platelet suppression was measured through aspirin reactive units and P2Y12 reactive units. Medication adherence was measured using the PDC. The analysis team was blinded to the participants' group membership. The primary outcome was a feasibility analysis of recruitment and retention. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 60.4 years (SD 7.1); the majority of patients were black and non-Hispanic. The majority of patients' reading levels were seventh grade or above, and they were not very familiar with other electronic devices for information and communication. The number of control subjects was 21, and the number of participants in the interventional arm was 24. The interventional group was able to use MyIDEA in both the hospital and outpatient setting. However, there was no significant difference in platelet suppression or medication adherence between groups. There were also differences between the groups in terms of depression and anxiety, initially, as measured by HADS. No documented adverse event associated with the intervention was found. CONCLUSIONS: Elderly patients are willing to use tablet devices to be educated about health conditions. Additional studies are required to measure the effectiveness and determine the most suitable timing and location for patient education. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04439864; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04439864.

What Happened to Me while I Was in the Hospital? Challenges and Opportunities for Generating Patient-Friendly Hospitalization Summaries.

Comprehending medical information is a challenging task, especially for people who have not received formal medical education. When patients are discharged from the hospital, they are provided with lengthy medical documents that contain intricate terminologies. Studies have shown that if people do not understand the content of their health documents, they will neither look for new information regarding their illness nor will they take actions to prevent or recover from their health issue. In this article, we highlight the need for generating personalized hospital-stay summaries and several research challenges associated with this task. The proposed directions are directly informed by our ongoing work in generating concise and comprehensible hospitalization summaries that are tailored to suit the patient's understanding of medical terminologies and level of engagement in improving their own health. Our preliminary evaluation shows that our summaries effectively present required medical concepts.

The meaning and value of taking part in a person-centred arts programme to hospital-based stroke patients: findings from a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: The importance of addressing mental well-being while stroke patients are in hospital has been recognized by policy makers but there is a gap between rhetoric and reality. This study explored the potential for using a person-centred, artist facilitated, one-to-one arts programme to improve the emotional and mental well-being of patients, which may be adversely affected as a result of the negative experiences arising from stroke and hospitalization. METHOD: The study focused on those patients remaining in hospital for above average durations and included patients with functional, cognitive and speech or language impairments. After participation in the arts programme and before discharge, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with sixteen patients, and in the case of two patients with severe cognitive loss, a relative, as a proxy, was interviewed. Interviews explored the experience of stroke and hospital stay and the meaning and value of taking part in Time Being Stroke and the data was analysed thematically. To underpin and contextualize the interview material, clinical status and treatment information routinely collected by the multi-disciplinary stroke team was obtained and analysed; in addition material on the content of each session was recorded by artists and analysed. RESULTS: Patients' accounts suggest that participation in a person-centred arts programme contributed to their mental well-being. As might be expected from a person-centred intervention, benefits varied across the sample, but the most commonly mentioned positive aspects of participation included the experiences of: pleasure and enjoyment, a sense of connection with the artists, mental stimulation, learning and creativity, engagement in purposeful occupation and relief from boredom, and reconnection with valued aspects of the self. These experiences of participation contrast strongly with the acute and chronic distress associated with stroke, impairment, and spending long periods of time in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Arts interventions such as the one implemented and evaluated in this study provide a positive and valuable experience for longer staying stroke patients, contributing to their mental well-being during an otherwise distressing illness and hospital stay.

Organisation and features of hospital, intermediate care and social services in English sites with low rates of delayed discharge.

In recent years, there has been significant concern, and policy activity, in relation to the problem of delayed discharges from hospital. Key elements of policy to tackle delays include new investment, the establishment of the Health and Social Care Change Agent Team, and the implementation of the Community Care (Delayed Discharge) Act 2003. Whilst the problem of delays has been widespread, some authorities have managed to tackle delays successfully. The aim of the qualitative study reported here was to investigate discharge practice and the organisation of services at sites with consistently low rates of delay, in order to identify factors supporting such good performance. Six 'high performing' English sites (each including a hospital trust, a local authority, and a primary care trust) were identified using a statistical model, and 42 interviews were undertaken with health and social services staff involved in discharge arrangements. Additionally, the authors set out to investigate the experiences of patients in the sites to examine whether there was a cost to patient care and outcomes of discharge arrangements in these sites, but unfortunately, it was not possible to secure sufficient patient participation. Whilst acknowledging the lack of patient experience and outcome data, a range of service elements was identified at the sites that contribute to the avoidance of delays, either through supporting efficiency within individual agencies or enabling more efficient joint working. Sites still struggling with delays should benefit from knowledge of this range. The government's reimbursement scheme appears to have been largely helpful in the study sites, prompting efficiency-driven changes to the organisation of services and discharge systems, but further focused research is required to provide clear evidence of its impact nationally, and in particular, how it impacts on staff, and patients and their families.