Understanding activity levels in cardiac transplant patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Using Smartphones to Monitor Response to the Surgical Treatment of Advanced Heart Failure.
IRAS ID
238892
Contact name
Timothy Baker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Papworth Hospital NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
The study aims to determine if we can measure the extent to which surgical treatment improves health using data that is automatically collected on a Smartphone.
Success of surgery is measured in several ways, but the most important type of assessment focuses on individual patients rather than just evaluating population and economic outcomes. More than 80% of the population own and frequently use a smartphone and these devices contain continuous and accurate activity monitors allowing for collection of a real-time assessment of physical functional status. This might allow us to improve our understanding of surgical outcomes by mapping the trajectory of recovery from surgery. This has not previously been possible.
Smartphones measure actual activity for example the number of steps and of flights climbed in a day but also because of the ‘smart’ nature of these activity monitors it is also readily possible to detect information that is representative of social activity. For example, when on Monday to Friday a change in location is detected at 9am and then this location reverts to the original location after 5pm, a pattern likely representative of a patient who is in work is deduced. The same principles can be applied to social and leisure activities. This has been demonstrated to be effective in analysing the effect of mood on activity levels but this has never been considered for evaluating response to surgery.
We will be trying to observe the activity of patients who have had a heart transplant surgery at Papworth hospital. This small feasibility study aims to use see whether it is possible to demonstrate changes seen in response to surgery, whether it is an acceptable process for patients and if there are potential uses of this technology for improving clinical care.REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/SC/0114
Date of REC Opinion
16 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion