An app can help people who’ve had a heart attack avoid rehospitalization, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Having to come back to the hospital shortly after you’ve been discharged is called rehospitalization, and for people who’ve had a heart attack that’s not an outcome anyone wants. Now an app developed by Seth Martin, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, has been shown to help inform and educate people so they can help manage their own care. 

Martin: It’s also about lifestyles, diet and exercise and knowing who to follow up with, knowing about the importance of enrolling in a cardiac rehab program. So as we brought all this together for patients and as they used the app and interacted with Corrie on a smart watch as well as using a connected blood pressure monitor, these high levels of patient activation were associated with improved outcomes, reduced 30 day all cause readmissions. Patients in the Corrie group were less likely to come back to the hospitals.  :31

Martin says using the app, called Corrie, in several types of hospitals has shown its practicality. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.