Mobile Health Augmented Cardiac Rehabilitation (MCard) in Post-Acute Coronary Syndrome Patients: A randomised controlled trial protocol

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of mobile health augmented cardiac rehabilitation (MCard) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), clinical and behavioural outcomes in post-ACS. METHODS: A single-centre, single-blinded, two-arm randomised controlled trial is planned at Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC), Pakistan. The duration was two years, that is from January 2019 till December 2020. A total of 160 participants were recruited and randomly allocated to the control group or the intervention group. Intervention is a mobile health augmented cardiac rehabilitation (MCard), a medically supervised cardiac rehabilitation program for 23-24 weeks. The phase one includes individual counselling during the hospital stay and in phase two includes communication of standardised messages related to healthy lifestyle modification through a specifically designed software. RESULTS: This clinical trial results will give insight into the impact of MCard in improving the health outcomes (HRQoL, clinical and behavioural) of participants. If proven to be effective, this technology can be scaled up and implemented in other cardiac centres in the country. It utilises fewer human resources and can be delivered at a lower cost. CONCLUSION: The study protocol will be giving evidence either MCard can contribute to improving the HRQoL, clinical and behavioural outcomes of post-ACS patients following hospital discharge. Considering the COVID-9 situation, this is the perfect time to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of MCard on health outcomes among post-ACS patients.