Telemonitoring of Real-World Health Data in Cardiology: A Systematic Review

Background: New sensor technologies in wearables and other consumer health devices open up promising opportunities to collect real-world data. As cardiovascular diseases remain the number one reason for disease and mortality worldwide, cardiology offers potent monitoring use cases with patients in their out-of-hospital daily routines. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review is to investigate the status quo of studies monitoring patients with cardiovascular risks and patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases in a telemedical setting using not only a smartphone-based app, but also consumer health devices such as wearables and other sensor-based devices. Methods: A literature search was conducted across five databases, and the results were examined according to the study protocols, technical approaches, and qualitative and quantitative parameters measured. Results: Out of 166 articles, 8 studies were included in this systematic review; these cover interventional and observational monitoring approaches in the area of cardiovascular diseases, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation using various app, wearable, and health device combinations. Conclusions: Depending on the researcher’s motivation, a fusion of apps, patient-reported outcome measures, and non-invasive sensors can be orchestrated in a meaningful way, adding major contributions to monitoring concepts for both individual patients and larger cohorts.