Project summary
Interactive peer support based on the concept of emotional contagion for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease.
What is the issue for NSW?
Heart disease causes nearly 20% of deaths around the world. Unfortunately, the ongoing care for secondary prevention that people receive after they leave hospital has not kept up with related medical advances.
What does the research aim to do and how?
To fix this, the team of researchers and software developers will unite to develop and test a new system for providing support and motivation to patients attending cardiac rehabilitation. The team will build an electronic peer support system that patients with coronary heart disease can access to help motivate each other reduce their risk.
The system will be meaningful and usable for patients with heart disease and could be easily distributed and expanded to other health areas. The project has the potential to be scalable and influence health service delivery and close current evidence-practice gaps relating to secondary prevention of heart disease.