TEC4Home Heart Failure

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Home Health Monitoring for Patients with Heart Failure

What is TEC4Home Heart Failure?

  • TEC4Home Heart Failure is a research project studying how Home Health Monitoring can support the transition of care from hospital to home for heart failure patients.
  • TEC4Home Heart Failure uses Home Health Monitoring equipment supplied by TELUS Health. The patient kit includes a tablet, weight scale, blood pressure cuff, and pulse oximeter to collect and send biometric measurements daily for 60 days post-discharge from hospital.
  • A monitoring clinician reviews the data remotely, monitoring symptoms and following up with patients to detect early deterioration, thereby avoiding unnecessary Emergency Department (ED) readmissions and hospitalizations.
  • Results from the TEC4Home Feasibility Study have been used to inform the implementation and design of the trial.

How will the TEC4Home Heart Failure trial work?

  • TEC4Home Heart Failure will recruit patients from 20 hospital sites across Fraser Health, Interior Health, Providence Healthcare and Vancouver Coastal Health. The target number of patient participants is 900 (450 control group/ 450 intervention group) over a 15-month period.
  • The study population are patients with Heart Failure presenting to the ED because of their Heart Failure symptoms. Patients directly discharged from the ED or who are admitted to the hospital will be eligible to participate.
  • Patients will be enrolled into the control group (usual care) or the intervention group (usual care + technology).
    • The control group will be asked to complete an enrollment (pre-) survey prior to discharge and a completion (post-) survey 90 days after discharge, but will otherwise receive usual care.
    • The intervention group will be asked to complete the enrollment (pre-) survey and completion (post-) survey. They will also receive the Home Health Monitoring equipment and be monitored for 60 days post discharge.

At the beginning of the study, all 20 sites will enroll participants into the control group. At 3-month intervals, clusters of 4 to 5 sites will begin enrolling participants into the intervention group. By the end of the study, all 20 sites will be enrolling participants into the intervention group.

What does the Home Health Monitoring intervention look like?

 

What do we want to achieve?

  • Our hypothesis is that TEC4Home Heart Failure will be a cost-effective strategy to decrease 90-day ED revisits and hospital admission rates, and improve comfort and quality of life for patients with Heart Failure.
  • The results from the TEC4Home Heart Failure trial will inform the scale and spread of HHM technology in BC.

How are stakeholders being involved in the project?

  • The TEC4Home Healthcare Innovation community includes researchers, clinicians, administrators, and patient partners.
  • Leads from each Health Authority and hospital site are engaged and involved in the overall project planning and implementation.
  • Committees and working groups with representation from all partners provide ongoing steering and decision support in 4 key areas: research, clinical workflow, technology and project & change management.

More about the research component of TEC4Home

  • TEC4Home Heart Failure is a four year initiative funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and Michael Smith Foundation for Heath Research, with matching funding from the BC Ministry of Health and an industry partnership with TELUS Health.

Questions?

For more information, please visit www.TEC4Home.ca or contact: