Heart Health on Evidation

Heart Health on Evidation

In collaboration with the American College of Cardiology (ACC), Evidation has launched a nationwide initiative focusing on the lived experience of individuals with heart failure beyond the clinic walls, to understand their particular needs and sources of value which could improve engagement and outcomes.

Over 1000 people with heart failure and other chronic conditions (as of April 2021) from across 48 states and the District of Columbia have agreed to participate, recruited in less than 1 month from Evidation’s app.

Person-Generated Health Data

PGHD allows us to understand the heart failure lived experience outside the clinic for a wider population, and allows individuals to tell their own story.

Engagement

Through PGHD, we can identify individuals who could benefit from engagement and nudge them towards evidence supported actions.

Digital Tools

We can identify individuals with heart failure that are not being managed well and engage them via digital tools, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Important Insights: As of November 29, 2021

Medication Assistance

22% reported needing help with taking their heart health medications.

Medication Assistance: Demographics

People that require help with medication tend to be relatively young, with lower educational levels and having either multiple or no insurance.

Medication Assistance: Symptoms

People that require medication assistance tend to report a worsening of symptoms and more frequent personal care limitations.

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Missing Medication: Changes and Forgetfulness

People that require medication assistance change medication more often, but also tend to not take them more often.

Missing Medication: Reasons

People that miss medications more often also tend to report more reasons for missing it. This includes side effects, complexity and financial constraints.

Missing Medication: Socioeconomic Status

People that tend to miss medications more often are relatively young, with lower educational degree and have large households.

Medication: Smoking Tendencies

People that tend to miss medications more often tend to smoke and use a walking device.

Important Insights: As of July 22, 2021

Medication Change

While more than half of the patients actively taking medication to manage their heart health report having never changed either the medications or the dosages they are on, we see a huge range in the rates with which the others report that their medication and the dosages of their medications are changed.

Symptoms by Medication Change

We asked patients how their symptoms changed after their most recent medication change. We saw that a change usually had no effect on specific symptoms, but often helped. However, patients on government (Medicaid, TRICARE or military) insurance, the opposite trend was seen - heart failure often results in a reduced ability to exercise, and patients on government insurance told us that their new medications often made this worse.

Medication Impact on Well-Being

We asked patients how they were feeling overall since their last medication change. We saw that patients who changed their medications more often (e.g. monthly) felt better overall.

Symptoms by Socioeconomic Status

We see that socioeconomics (for example employment status or the type of insurance someone is on) associates strongly with the number of symptoms an individual reports.

Missing a Dose of Medication

We asked patients how often they miss a dose of their medications and why. The most common reason for occasionally missing a dose was simply because they forgot, but we also saw that many patients reported having trouble paying for medications or tried to stretch their medications to limit costs. In addition, patients who avoided or stopped taking their medications reported having concerns about the medication, experienced side-effects or believed the medications did not work on them.

Access to Healthcare

Many heart failure patients experience limitations in access to healthcare. Patients told us that the number one reason for experiencing limitations has been the pandemic.

Trends in Activity

We compared self-reported trends in overall health with objective behavioral data collected from consumer-grade wearables. It was found that people who reported feeling better tend to have increased their activity levels over the preceding few months.

Important Insights: As of May 25, 2021

Geographic Reach

474 heart failure participants from across the United States joined the study, representing 48/50 states and a 80:20 mix of urban and rural.

Behaviorgram

Participants shared up to 5 years of retrospective wearable data, in many cases covering their entire heart failure journey: pre-diagnosis, diagnosis, hospitalizations and medication changes, as well as current symptoms and trajectories.

Device Usage

We observe high levels of device usage across demographic, socio-economic and ethnic groups.

Diagnoses

76% of participants reported being aware of their symptoms prior to diagnosis, and 25% for months or years before their diagnosis. 61% participants have a connected wearable device, of which 9% participants shared dense (no more than 4 consecutive missing days, no more than 15 days missing in a month) wearable data covering their entire journey all the way to diagnosis.

Hospitalizations

89% of participants had been hospitalized at least once, and 24% participants shared dense (no more than 4 consecutive missing days, no more than 15 days missing in a month) wearable data covering their most recent hospitalization.

Medication Change

11-13% report not regularly taking any medications for their heart failure, and of those that are, 53% participants reported feeling no change or worsening symptoms since last medication change.