Heart failure is a long-term condition in which the heart cannot pump blood as well as it should. People with heart failure often need to be admitted to hospital when their symptoms suddenly get worse, which affects their quality of life and places a heavy burden on the healthcare system.
In recent years, hospitals have started using home telemonitoring, in which patients measure values such as their weight, blood pressure, heart rate, and symptoms at home every day. These measurements are sent to a Medical Service Center (MSC), who can step in quickly when early warning signs appear - often before the patient feels seriously unwell.
The HARMONY-HF study looks at how well this hybrid care pathway works in everyday practice. The researchers will compare heart failure patients who take part in the home telemonitoring programme with patients who receive usual care without telemonitoring, across seven hospitals in the Netherlands. Because all care is part of routine treatment, patients are not asked to do anything extra for the study; the researchers use information that is already collected during normal care.
The main goal is to find out whether patients in the telemonitoring programme spend more days at home and out of the hospital. The study also looks at survival, hospital admissions, quality of life, and the use of recommended heart failure medication. The findings will help determine whether this approach should be offered more widely.