Project 466645

Despite advancements in diagnostic and therapeutic tools, heart failure (HF) is a growing epidemic in Canada and remains a major public health concern. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened this situation, revealing challenges in remotely managing large volumes of HF patients. Digital health tools (ex. Kardia ECG, Apple Watch) hold promise in improving the quality of life and care of HF patients. However, there are inequities in how such tools enter routine care. The marketing budget of their manufacturers, rather than their clinical benefit, may trump the uptake of digital health tools. Moreover, with the rapid development of technology, research on digital health tools can quickly become outdated. To combat these dilemmas, we aim to conduct a ;living systematic review (an ever-evolving critical review of research studies) to summarize all research on digital health tools for HF care, and to compare the effectiveness of tools with a similar purpose (ex. remote monitoring). The ever-evolving nature of our study will allow our work to remain relevant despite technological advances. We will also collaborate with community members (HF patients, family caregivers, physicians) to determine the optimal approach for assessing these tools. The results of our work will be summarized in a user-friendly repository that can be used as a search engine for digital health tools for HF care. Users can search our repository for any tool and receive a summary of all available evidence written in plain language. This repository will help patients and clinicians select digital health tools to maximize quality of life and achieve better health outcomes, such as reducing hospital visits. Our repository will also identify gaps for future research of promising technologies.