The development of a culturally specific heart failure self-management iPad teaching tool for Indigenous Australians

This presentation offers an overview of the development of a culturally specific heart failure self-managment iPad teaching tool for Indigenous Australians who are managing heart failure

How can using an iPad and an app assist in heart failure self-care and therefore wellbeing?

This paper describes the development and trialling of Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim: an iPad application designed to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The project is based on evidence that IT-supported education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. This project is the first demonstration that an iPad application can be developed to provide health care support for Indigenous Australian patients.In this paper, the authors describe an Action Research methodology, which involved health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart failure patients in three cycles of development. They also describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project. The Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim trial provides positive initial findings which suggest that Indigenous heart failure patients enjoy using the application and improve their knowledge and self-care. The authors are currently developing a Randomised Control Trial to fully evaluate the application

Using participatory action research for heart self care amongst indigenous patients

This paper describes the initial phases of the Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim project: a participatory action research project that involves developing and trialling an iPad app to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The development phase involved working with health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart-failure patients through three cycles of development and critical reflection. This was followed by a small pilot study to examine the app’s effectiveness. In this paper, the researchers explain why IT-supported health education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. They describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project and present the findings of their pilot study. This pilot project suggests that an iPad app may be a practical and successful way to provide health-care support for Indigenous Australian heart-failure patients

Using participatory action research to assist heart failure self-care amongst Indigenous Australians: a pilot study

This paper describes the initial phases of the Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim project: a participatory action research project that involves developing and trialling an iPad app to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The development phase involved working with health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart-failure patients through three cycles of development and critical reflection. This was followed by a small pilot study to examine the app’s effectiveness. In this paper, the researchers explain why IT-supported health education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. They describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project and present the findings of their pilot study. This pilot project suggests that an iPad app may be a practical and successful way to provide health-care support for Indigenous Australian heart-failure patients

Development of a culturally specific heart failure self-care iPad teaching tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders

Background / Aims: Self-care programs assisted by information technology can be highly effective in lowering re-hospitalisation and improving heart failure (HF) knowledge and self-management skills. To date, limited self-care resources have been developed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. The aims of this project were to 1) develop HF self-care educational materials that would be engaging, interactive, simple to navigate, useable by patients, carers and healthcare workers within the hospital and community settings; 2) to evaluate their effectiveness on HF knowledge, self-care behaviours and user friendliness.Methods: This study used a mixed method design including participatory action research for the development of a self-care app using a pre-post test design and validated questionnaires to evaluate effectiveness.Results: There were a total of 19 participants involved in the development and design of the app, including cardiologists, software designers, heart failure specialists, indigenous elders, healthcare workers and five patients and their families. Feedback from these stakeholders included aspects of fonts, colours, images, language and health literacy. Patients involved in the pre-post test were 60% male; mean age 61.2 years; 60% NYHA Class III; 80% married. Overall, HF knowledge improved by 13%; self-care behaviours by 3.2% and satisfaction 86.2%.Conclusion: Patients enjoyed participating in designing the app and showed improvement in knowledge, self-care and satisfaction. Outcomes from this pilot have been encouraging enough for our team to proceed to a larger powered trial

Development of a culturally specific heart failure self-management iPad teaching tool for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

This paper describes the initial phases of the Fluid Watchers Pacific Rim project: a participatory action research project that involves developing and trialling an iPad app to provide monitoring and self-care for Indigenous Australians with heart failure. The development phase involved working with health experts, an IT team and Indigenous heart-failure patients through three cycles of development and critical reflection. This was followed by a small pilot study to examine the app’s effectiveness. In this paper, the researchers explain why IT-supported health education can be successful in decreasing re-hospitalisation and improving self-management skills. They describe the steps they took to ensure community participation and ownership of the project and present the findings of their pilot study. This pilot project suggests that an iPad app may be a practical and successful way to provide health-care support for Indigenous Australian heart-failure patients