Partnership for the Heart (PfH) - Project description
Background
The superiority of specialized care and support of patients with chronic heart failure with regard to inpatient morbidity, cost reduction and health-related quality of life of the patients compared to „conventional care“ has been proven. Telemedical monitoring systems can represent a crucial structural element in new models of care for patients with chronic heart failure. As part of the „nextgenerationmedia“ technology initiative, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is supporting prototype development and a clinical study of an innovative system for telemedical care and support. The „Partnership for the Heart“ (PfH) project began in 2005 and will run until 2009.
The technical system consists of a mobile sensor platform in the patient‘s home, in which measurement devices tailored to the patient‘s individual needs can be integrated, and a telemedical center (TMC). This facility complements the primary care and specialist care in a particular region, especially at night and on weekends. The specialists at the TMC make medical decisions based on the vital signs transmitted by the patient and the individual medical history stored in an electronic patient file. The electronic patient file used in the PfH system is compatible with the current stage of development of the telematic infrastructure in the health care system.
The clinical study entitled „Telemedical Interventional Monitoring in Heart Failure“ (TIM-HF) included 600 patients with chronic heart failure (NYHA stages II to III) in a two-arm, open, multicentric (n=2), randomized parallel study; the two arms were „conventional guideline-compliant treatment“ and „guideline-compliant treatment plus telemedical monitoring“.
The primary end point is the total mortality rate. Secondary end points include the survival period without hospitalization (days alive and not hospitalized due to heart failure), non-elective hospitalization of any type, quality of life, plasma level of NT-proBNP as well as other biomarkers and a cost-efficiency analysis.
Objective
Several goals are being pursued with the PfH project:
- the clinical study TIM-HF tests the concept with regard to medical effectiveness and cost effectiveness to facilitate integration in conventional care over the long term.
- entities in medicine, industry and health care work intersectorally to incorporate it in the relevant daily work routines and in existing health care structures.
- the open system architecture permits cross-manufacturer integration of new measurement devices, new indications and core elements of the telematic infrastructure, reciprocal networking of multiple TMCs and integration in PIS and private practice software programs.