Predicting Risk of Alzheimer's Diseases and Related Dementias with AI Foundation Model on Electronic Health Records.

Early identification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (ADRD) has high clinical significance, both because of the potential to slow decline through initiating FDA-approved therapies and managing modifiable risk factors, and to help persons living with dementia and their families to plan before cognitive loss makes doing so challenging. However, substantial racial and ethnic disparities in early diagnosis currently lead to additional inequities in care, urging accurate and inclusive risk assessment programs. In this study, we trained an artificial intelligence foundation model to represent the electronic health records (EHR) data with a vast cohort of 1.2 million patients within a large health system. Building upon this foundation EHR model, we developed a predictive Transformer model, named TRADE, capable of identifying risks for AD/ADRD and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), by analyzing the past sequential visit records. Amongst individuals 65 and older, our model was able to generate risk predictions for various future timeframes. On the held-out validation set, our model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) of 0.772 (95% CI: 0.770, 0.773) for identifying the AD/ADRD/MCI risks in 1 year, and AUROC of 0.735 (95% CI: 0.734, 0.736) in 5 years. The positive predictive values (PPV) in 5 years among individuals with top 1% and 5% highest estimated risks were 39.2% and 27.8%, respectively. These results demonstrate significant improvements upon the current EHR-based AD/ADRD/MCI risk assessment models, paving the way for better prognosis and management of AD/ADRD/MCI at scale.

Goal setting among older adults starting mobile health cardiac rehabilitation in the RESILIENT trial.

BACKGROUND: There is growing recognition that healthcare should align with individuals' health priorities; however, these priorities remain undefined, especially among older adults. The Rehabilitation Using Mobile Health for Older Adults with Ischemic Heart Disease in the Home Setting (RESILIENT) trial, designed to test the efficacy of mobile health cardiac rehabilitation (mHealth-CR) in an older cohort, also measures the attainment of participant-defined health outcome goals as a prespecified secondary endpoint. This study aimed to characterize the health priorities of older adults with ischemic heart disease (IHD) using goal attainment scaling-a technique for measuring individualized goal achievement-in a sample of 100 RESILIENT participants. METHODS: The ongoing RESILIENT trial randomizes patients aged ≥65 years with IHD (defined as hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome and/or coronary revascularization), to receive mHealth-CR or usual care. For the current study, we qualitatively coded baseline goal attainment scales from randomly selected batches of 20 participants to identify participants' cardiac rehabilitation outcome goals and their perceptions of barriers and action plans for goal attainment. We used a deductive framework (i.e., 4 value categories from Patient Priorities Care) and inductive approaches to code and analyze interviews until thematic saturation. RESULTS: This sample of 100 older adults set diverse health outcome goals. Most (54.6%) prioritized physical activity, fewer (17.1%) identified symptom management, fewer still (13.7%) prioritized health metrics, mostly comprised of weight loss goals (10.3%), and the fewest (<4%) were related to clinical metrics such as reducing cholesterol or preventing hospital readmission. Participants anticipated extrinsic (access to places to exercise, time) and intrinsic (non-cardiac pain, motivation) barriers. Action plans detailed strategies for exercise, motivation, accountability, and overcoming time constraints. CONCLUSIONS: Using goal attainment scaling, we elicited specific and measurable goals among older adults with IHD beginning cardiac rehabilitation. Priorities were predominantly functional, diverging from clinical metrics emphasized by clinicians and healthcare systems.

Evaluating Large Language Models in Extracting Cognitive Exam Dates and Scores.

Importance: Large language models (LLMs) are crucial for medical tasks. Ensuring their reliability is vital to avoid false results. Our study assesses two state-of-the-art LLMs (ChatGPT and LlaMA-2) for extracting clinical information, focusing on cognitive tests like MMSE and CDR. Objective: Evaluate ChatGPT and LlaMA-2 performance in extracting MMSE and CDR scores, including their associated dates. Methods: Our data consisted of 135,307 clinical notes (Jan 12th, 2010 to May 24th, 2023) mentioning MMSE, CDR, or MoCA. After applying inclusion criteria 34,465 notes remained, of which 765 underwent ChatGPT (GPT-4) and LlaMA-2, and 22 experts reviewed the responses. ChatGPT successfully extracted MMSE and CDR instances with dates from 742 notes. We used 20 notes for fine-tuning and training the reviewers. The remaining 722 were assigned to reviewers, with 309 each assigned to two reviewers simultaneously. Inter-rater-agreement (Fleiss' Kappa), precision, recall, true/false negative rates, and accuracy were calculated. Our study follows TRIPOD reporting guidelines for model validation. Results: For MMSE information extraction, ChatGPT (vs. LlaMA-2) achieved accuracy of 83% (vs. 66.4%), sensitivity of 89.7% (vs. 69.9%), true-negative rates of 96% (vs 60.0%), and precision of 82.7% (vs 62.2%). For CDR the results were lower overall, with accuracy of 87.1% (vs. 74.5%), sensitivity of 84.3% (vs. 39.7%), true-negative rates of 99.8% (98.4%), and precision of 48.3% (vs. 16.1%). We qualitatively evaluated the MMSE errors of ChatGPT and LlaMA-2 on double-reviewed notes. LlaMA-2 errors included 27 cases of total hallucination, 19 cases of reporting other scores instead of MMSE, 25 missed scores, and 23 cases of reporting only the wrong date. In comparison, ChatGPT's errors included only 3 cases of total hallucination, 17 cases of wrong test reported instead of MMSE, and 19 cases of reporting a wrong date. Conclusions: In this diagnostic/prognostic study of ChatGPT and LlaMA-2 for extracting cognitive exam dates and scores from clinical notes, ChatGPT exhibited high accuracy, with better performance compared to LlaMA-2. The use of LLMs could benefit dementia research and clinical care, by identifying eligible patients for treatments initialization or clinical trial enrollments. Rigorous evaluation of LLMs is crucial to understanding their capabilities and limitations.

Progression of Frailty and Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Medicare Beneficiaries.

Background: Frailty is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes independent of age and comorbidities, yet the independent influence of frailty progression remains uncertain. Methods: Medicare Fee-for-service beneficiaries ≥ 65 years at cohort inception with continuous enrollment from 2003-2015 were included. Frailty trajectory was measured by annualized change in a validated claims-based frailty index (CFI) over a 5-year period. Linear mixed effects models, adjusting for baseline frailty, were used to estimate CFI change over a 5-year period. Survival analysis was used to evaluate associations of frailty progression and future health outcomes (major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events [MACCE], all-cause death, heart failure, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and days alive at home [DAH] within the following calendar year). Results: 26.4 million unique beneficiaries were included (mean age 75.4 ± 7.0 years, 57% female, 13% non-White). In total, 20% had frailty progression, 66% had no change in frailty, and 14% frailty regression over median follow-up of 2.4 years. Compared to those without a change in CFI, when adjusting for baseline frailty, those with frailty progression had significantly greater risk of incident MACCE (hazard ratio [HR] 2.30, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.30-2.31), all-cause mortality (HR 1.59, 95% CI 1.58-1.59), acute myocardial infarction (HR 1.78, 95% CI 1.77-1.79), heart failure (HR 2.78, 95% CI 2.77-2.79), and stroke (HR 1.78, 95% CI 1.77-1.79). There was also a graded increase in risk of each outcome with more rapid progression and significantly fewer DAH with the most rapid vs. the slowest progression group (270.4 ± 112.3 vs. 308.6 ± 93.0 days, rate ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.87-0.88, p < 0.001). Conclusions: In this large, nationwide sample of Medicare beneficiaries, frailty progression, independent of baseline frailty, was associated with fewer DAH and a graded risk of MACCE, all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke compared to those without progression.

Neighborhood-Level Socioeconomic Status and Prescription Fill Patterns Among Patients With Heart Failure.

Importance: Medication nonadherence is common among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and can lead to increased hospitalization and mortality. Patients living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas may be at greater risk for medication nonadherence due to barriers such as lower access to transportation or pharmacies. Objective: To examine the association between neighborhood-level socioeconomic status (nSES) and medication nonadherence among patients with HFrEF and to assess the mediating roles of access to transportation, walkability, and pharmacy density. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study was conducted between June 30, 2020, and December 31, 2021, at a large health system based primarily in New York City and surrounding areas. Adult patients with a diagnosis of HF, reduced EF on echocardiogram, and a prescription of at least 1 guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for HFrEF were included. Exposure: Patient addresses were geocoded, and nSES was calculated using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality SES index, which combines census-tract level measures of poverty, rent burden, unemployment, crowding, home value, and education, with higher values indicating higher nSES. Main Outcomes and Measures: Medication nonadherence was obtained through linkage of health record prescription data with pharmacy fill data and was defined as proportion of days covered (PDC) of less than 80% over 6 months, averaged across GDMT medications. Results: Among 6247 patients, the mean (SD) age was 73 (14) years, and majority were male (4340 [69.5%]). There were 1011 (16.2%) Black participants, 735 (11.8%) Hispanic/Latinx participants, and 3929 (62.9%) White participants. Patients in lower nSES areas had higher rates of nonadherence, ranging from 51.7% in the lowest quartile (731 of 1086 participants) to 40.0% in the highest quartile (563 of 1086 participants) (P < .001). In adjusted analysis, patients living in the lower 2 nSES quartiles had significantly higher odds of nonadherence when compared with patients living in the highest nSES quartile (quartile 1: odds ratio [OR], 1.57 [95% CI, 1.35-1.83]; quartile 2: OR, 1.35 [95% CI, 1.16-1.56]). No mediation by access to transportation and pharmacy density was found, but a small amount of mediation by neighborhood walkability was observed. Conclusions and Relevance: In this retrospective cohort study of patients with HFrEF, living in a lower nSES area was associated with higher rates of GDMT nonadherence. These findings highlight the importance of considering neighborhood-level disparities when developing approaches to improve medication adherence.

Telehealth and Health Equity in Older Adults With Heart Failure: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Enhancing access to care using telehealth is a priority for improving outcomes among older adults with heart failure, increasing quality of care, and decreasing costs. Telehealth has the potential to increase access to care for patients who live in underresourced geographic regions, have physical disabilities or poor access to transportation, and may not otherwise have access to cardiologists with expertise in heart failure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, access to telehealth expanded, and yet barriers to access, including broadband inequality, low digital literacy, and structural barriers, prevented many of the disadvantaged patients from getting equitable access. Using a health equity lens, this scientific statement reviews the literature on telehealth for older adults with heart failure; provides an overview of structural, organizational, and personal barriers to telehealth; and presents novel interventions that pair telemedicine with in-person services to mitigate existing barriers and structural inequities.

Health status and clinical outcomes in older adults with chronic coronary disease: the ISCHEMIA trial

BACKGROUND: Whether initial invasive management in older vs younger adults with chronic coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia improves health status or clinical outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to examine the impact of age on health status and clinical outcomes with invasive vs conservative management in the ISCHEMIA (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches) trial. METHODS: One-year angina-specific health status was assessed with the 7-item Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) (score range 0-100; higher scores indicate better health status). Cox proportional hazards models estimated the treatment effect of invasive vs conservative management as a function of age on the composite clinical outcome of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for resuscitated cardiac arrest, unstable angina, or heart failure. RESULTS: Among 4,617 participants, 2,239 (48.5%) were aged <65 years, 1,713 (37.1%) were aged 65 to 74 years, and 665 (14.4%) were aged ≥75 years. Baseline SAQ summary scores were lower in participants aged <65 years. Fully adjusted differences in 1-year SAQ summary scores (invasive minus conservative) were 4.90 (95% CI: 3.56-6.24) at age 55 years, 3.48 (95% CI: 2.40-4.57) at age 65 years, and 2.13 (95% CI: 0.75-3.51) at age 75 years (Pinteraction = 0.008). Improvement in SAQ Angina Frequency was less dependent on age (Pinteraction = 0.08). There were no age differences between invasive vs conservative management on the composite clinical outcome (Pinteraction = 0.29). CONCLUSIONS: Older patients with chronic coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia had consistent improvement in angina frequency but less improvement in angina-related health status with invasive management compared with younger patients. Invasive management was not associated with improved clinical outcomes in older or younger patients. (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches [ISCHEMIA]; NCT01471522).

Health Status and Clinical Outcomes in Older Adults With Chronic Coronary Disease: The ISCHEMIA Trial.

BACKGROUND: Whether initial invasive management in older vs younger adults with chronic coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia improves health status or clinical outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this study was to examine the impact of age on health status and clinical outcomes with invasive vs conservative management in the ISCHEMIA (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches) trial. METHODS: One-year angina-specific health status was assessed with the 7-item Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) (score range 0-100; higher scores indicate better health status). Cox proportional hazards models estimated the treatment effect of invasive vs conservative management as a function of age on the composite clinical outcome of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for resuscitated cardiac arrest, unstable angina, or heart failure. RESULTS: Among 4,617 participants, 2,239 (48.5%) were aged <65 years, 1,713 (37.1%) were aged 65 to 74 years, and 665 (14.4%) were aged ≥75 years. Baseline SAQ summary scores were lower in participants aged <65 years. Fully adjusted differences in 1-year SAQ summary scores (invasive minus conservative) were 4.90 (95% CI: 3.56-6.24) at age 55 years, 3.48 (95% CI: 2.40-4.57) at age 65 years, and 2.13 (95% CI: 0.75-3.51) at age 75 years (Pinteraction = 0.008). Improvement in SAQ Angina Frequency was less dependent on age (Pinteraction = 0.08). There were no age differences between invasive vs conservative management on the composite clinical outcome (Pinteraction = 0.29). CONCLUSIONS: Older patients with chronic coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia had consistent improvement in angina frequency but less improvement in angina-related health status with invasive management compared with younger patients. Invasive management was not associated with improved clinical outcomes in older or younger patients. (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness with Medical and Invasive Approaches [ISCHEMIA]; NCT01471522).

Does Incident Cardiovascular Disease Lead to Greater Odds of Functional and Cognitive Impairment? Insights From the Health and Retirement Study.

BACKGROUND: Although studies to date have broadly shown that cardiovascular disease (CVD) increases cognitive and physical impairment risk, there is still limited understanding of the magnitude of this risk among relevant CVD subtypes or age cohorts. METHODS: We analyzed longitudinal data from 16 679 U.S. Health and Retirement Study participants who were aged ≥65 years at study entry. Primary endpoints were physical impairment (activities of daily living impairment) or cognitive impairment (Langa-Weir Classification of dementia). We compared these endpoints among participants who developed incident CVD versus those who were CVD free, both in the short term (<2-year postdiagnosis) and long term (>5 years), controlling for sociodemographic and health characteristics. We then analyzed the effects by CVD subtype (atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and stroke) and age-at-diagnosis (65-74, 75-84, and ≥85). RESULTS: Over a median follow-up of 10 years, 8 750 participants (52%) developed incident CVD. Incident CVD was associated with significantly higher adjusted odds (aOR) of short-term and long-term physical and cognitive impairment. The oldest (≥85) age-at-diagnosis subgroup had the highest risk of short-term physical (aOR 3.01, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.40-3.77) and cognitive impairment (aOR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.55-2.48), as well as long-term impairment. All CVD subtypes were associated with higher odds of physical and cognitive impairment, with the highest risk for patients with incident stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Incident CVD was associated with an increased risk of physical and cognitive impairment across CVD subtypes. Impairment risk after CVD was highest among the oldest patients (≥85 years) who should therefore remain a target for prevention efforts.

A risk model for decline in health status after acute myocardial infarction among older adults.

BACKGROUND: Health status is increasingly recognized as an important patient-centered outcome after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Yet drivers of decline in health status after AMI remain largely unknown in older adults. We sought to develop and validate a predictive risk model for health status decline among older adult survivors of AMI. METHODS: Using data from a prospective cohort study conducted from 2013 to 2017 of 3041 patients age ≥75 years hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction at 94 U.S. hospitals, we examined a broad array of demographic, clinical, functional, and psychosocial variables for their association with health status decline, defined as a decrease of ≥5 points in the Short Form-12 (SF-12) physical component score from hospitalization to 6 months post-discharge. Model selection was performed in logistic regression models of 20 imputed datasets to yield a parsimonious risk prediction model. Model discrimination and calibration were evaluated using c-statistics and calibration plots, respectively. RESULTS: Of the 2571 participants included in the main analyses, 30% of patients experienced health status decline from hospitalization to 6 months post-discharge. The risk model contained 14 factors, 10 associated with higher risk of health status decline (age, pre-existing AMI, pre-existing cancer, pre-existing COPD, pre-existing diabetes, history of falls, presenting Killip class, acute kidney injury, baseline health status, and mobility impairment) and four associated with lower risk of health status decline (male sex, higher hemoglobin, receipt of revascularization, and arrhythmia during hospitalization). The model displayed good discrimination (c-statistic = 0.74 in validation cohort) and calibration (p > 0.05) in both development and validation cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: We used split sampling to develop and validate a risk model for health status decline in older adults after hospitalization for AMI and identified several risk factors that may be modifiable to mitigate the threat of this important patient-centered outcome. External validation of this risk model is warranted.

Racial disparities among older adults with acute myocardial infarction: The SILVER-AMI study.

BACKGROUND: Despite an aging population, little is known about racial disparities in aging-specific functional impairments and mortality among older adults hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: We analyzed data from patients aged 75 years or older who were hospitalized for AMI at 94 US hospitals from 2013 to 2016. Functional impairments and geriatric conditions were assessed in-person during the AMI hospitalization. The association between race and risk of mortality (primary outcome) was evaluated with logistic regression adjusted sequentially for age, clinical characteristics, and measures of functional impairment and other conditions associated with aging. RESULTS: Among 2918 participants, 2668 (91.4%) self-identified as White and 250 (8.6%) as Black. Black participants were younger (80.8 vs 81.7 years; p = 0.010) and more likely to be female (64.8% vs 42.5%; p < 0.001). Black participants were more likely to present with impairments in cognition (37.6% vs 14.5%; p < 0.001), mobility (66.0% vs 54.6%; p < 0.001) and vision (50.1% vs 35.7%; p < 0.001). Black participants were also more likely to report a disability in one or more activities of daily living (22.4% vs 13.0%; p < 0.001) and an unintentional loss of more than 10 lbs in the year prior to hospitalization (37.2% vs 13.0%; p < 0.001). The unadjusted odds of 6-month mortality among Black participants (odds ratio [OR] 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4-2.8) attenuated to non-significance after adjustment for age, clinical characteristics (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.7, 1.2-2.5), and functional/geriatric conditions (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.0-2.2). CONCLUSIONS: Black participants had a more geriatric phenotype despite a younger average age, with more functional impairments. Controlling for functional impairments and geriatric conditions attenuated disparities in 6-month mortality somewhat. These findings highlight the importance of systematically assessing functional impairment during hospitalization and also ensuring equitable access to community programs to support post-AMI recovery among Black older adults.

GeriKit: A novel app for comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Given the growth of the older adult population in the United States, there is a greater need for tools to enable students, trainees, and clinicians to master the comprehensive geriatric assessment. Our goal was to develop a mobile phone application (app) to assist in performing this assessment. We performed a market survey of 45 apps that related to geriatrics and health screening. We evaluated for usability, target audience, and instruments used. Deficiencies included: (1) focusing on a single domain; (2) being time-intensive; and (3) having components behind a paywall. We then designed an app that incorporates instruments that are well-validated, available at no cost, and brief in length. GeriKit includes eight domains: cognition, depression, function, strength, medications, falls, and advance care planning. Each instrument requires fewer than 5 minutes, and once it is completed and scored, the user can access relevant educational materials. GeriKit was launched for Apple users in December 2020, and for Android in August 2021. There have been over 3,400 downloads to date. The GeriKit app makes the comprehensive geriatric assessment accessible to a wide audience, improving the ability to for learners to perform geriatric assessments.

Study design of BETTER-BP: Behavioral economics trial to enhance regulation of blood pressure.

Background: Nonadherence to antihypertensive medications remains a persistent problem that leads to preventable morbidity and mortality. Behavioral economic strategies represent a novel way to improve antihypertensive medication adherence, but remain largely untested especially in vulnerable populations which stand to benefit the most. The Behavioral Economics Trial To Enhance Regulation of Blood Pressure (BETTER-BP) was designed in this context, to test whether a digitally-enabled incentive lottery improves antihypertensive adherence and reduces systolic blood pressure (SBP). Design: BETTER-BP is a pragmatic randomized trial conducted within 3 safety-net clinics in New York City: Bellevue Hospital Center, Gouveneur Hospital Center, and NYU Family Health Centers - Park Slope. The trial will randomize 435 patients with poorly controlled hypertension and poor adherence (<80% days adherent) in a 2:1 ratio (intervention:control) to receive either an incentive lottery versus passive monitoring. The incentive lottery is delivered via short messaging service (SMS) text messages that are delivered based on (1) antihypertensive adherence tracked via a wireless electronic monitoring device, paired with (2) a probability of lottery winning with variable incentives and a regret component for nonadherence. The study intervention lasts for 6 months, and ambulatory systolic blood pressure (SBP) will be measured at both 6 and 12 months to evaluate immediate and durable lottery effects. Conclusions: BETTER-BP will generate knowledge about whether an incentive lottery is effective in vulnerable populations to improve antihypertensive medication adherence. If successful, this could lead to the implementation of this novel strategy on a larger scale to improve outcomes.

Association Between Copayment Amount and Filling of Medications for Angiotensin Receptor Neprilysin Inhibitors in Patients With Heart Failure.

Background Angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNI) reduce mortality and hospitalization for patients with heart failure. However, relatively high copayments for ARNI may contribute to suboptimal adherence, thus potentially limiting their benefits. Methods and Results We conducted a retrospective cohort study within a large, multi-site health system. We included patients with: ARNI prescription between November 20, 2020 and June 30, 2021; diagnosis of heart failure or left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%; and available pharmacy or pharmacy benefit manager copayment data. The primary exposure was copayment, categorized as $0, $0.01 to $10, $10.01 to $100, and >$100. The primary outcome was prescription fill nonadherence, defined as the proportion of days covered <80% over 6 months. We assessed the association between copayment and nonadherence using multivariable logistic regression, and nonbinarized proportion of days covered using multivariable Poisson regression, adjusting for demographic, clinical, and neighborhood-level covariates. A total of 921 patients met inclusion criteria, with 192 (20.8%) having $0 copayment, 228 (24.8%) with $0.01 to $10 copayment, 206 (22.4%) with $10.01 to $100, and 295 (32.0%) with >$100. Patients with higher copayments had higher rates of nonadherence, ranging from 17.2% for $0 copayment to 34.2% for copayment >$100 (P<0.001). After multivariable adjustment, odds of nonadherence were significantly higher for copayment of $10.01 to $100 (odds ratio [OR], 1.93 [95% CI, 1.15-3.27], P=0.01) or >$100 (OR, 2.58 [95% CI, 1.63-4.18], P<0.001), as compared with $0 copayment. Similar associations were seen when assessing proportion of days covered as a proportion. Conclusions We found higher rates of not filling ARNI prescriptions among patients with higher copayments, which persisted after multivariable adjustment. Our findings support future studies to assess whether reducing copayments can increase adherence to ARNI and improve outcomes for heart failure.

Adherence and Exercise Capacity Improvements of Patients With Adult Congenital Heart Disease Participating in Cardiac Rehabilitation.

Background As the number of adults with congenital heart disease increases because of therapeutic advances, cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is increasingly being used in this population after cardiac procedures or for reduced exercise tolerance. We aim to describe the adherence and exercise capacity improvements of patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) in CR. Methods and Results This retrospective study included patients with ACHD in CR at New York University Langone Rusk Rehabilitation from 2013 to 2020. We collected data on patient characteristics, number of sessions attended, and functional testing results. Pre-CR and post-CR metabolic equivalent task, exercise time, and maximal oxygen uptake were assessed. In total, 89 patients with ACHD (mean age, 39.0 years; 54.0% women) participated in CR. Referral indications were reduced exercise tolerance for 42.7% and post-cardiac procedure (transcatheter or surgical) for the remainder. Mean number of sessions attended was 24.2, and 42 participants (47.2%) completed all 36 CR sessions. Among participants who completed the program as well as pre-CR and post-CR functional testing, metabolic equivalent task increased by 1.3 (95% CI, 0.7-1.9; baseline mean, 8.1), exercise time increased by 66.4 seconds (95% CI, 21.4-111.4 seconds; baseline mean, 536.1 seconds), and maximal oxygen uptake increased by 2.5 mL/kg per minute (95% CI, 0.7-4.2 mL/kg per minute; baseline mean, 20.2 mL/kg per minute). Conclusions On average, patients with ACHD who completed CR experienced improvements in exercise capacity. Efforts to increase adherence would allow more patients with ACHD to benefit.

Engaging Families in Adult Cardiovascular Care: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Family engagement empowers family members to become active partners in care delivery. Family members increasingly expect and wish to participate in care and be involved in the decision-making process. The goal of engaging families in care is to improve the care experience to achieve better outcomes for both patients and family members. There is emerging evidence that engaging family members in care improves person- and family-important outcomes. Engaging families in adult cardiovascular care involves a paradigm shift in the current organization and delivery of both acute and chronic cardiac care. Many cardiovascular health care professionals have limited awareness of the role and potential benefits of family engagement in care. Additionally, many fail to identify opportunities to engage family members. There is currently little guidance on family engagement in any aspect of cardiovascular care. The objective of this statement is to inform health care professionals and stakeholders about the importance of family engagement in cardiovascular care. This scientific statement will describe the rationale for engaging families in adult cardiovascular care, outline opportunities and challenges, highlight knowledge gaps, and provide suggestions to cardiovascular clinicians on how to integrate family members into the health care team.

Preexisting frailty and outcomes in older patients with acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the prevalence and prognostic impact of preexisting frailty on acute care and in-hospital outcomes in older adults in the setting of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: Preexisting frailty was assessed at baseline in consecutive AMI patients ≥65 years of age treated at 778 hospitals participating in the NCDR ACTION Registry between January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2016. Three domains of preexisting frailty (cognition, ambulation, and functional independence) were abstracted from chart review and summed in 2 ways: an ACTION Frailty Scale based on responses to 6 groups adapted from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging Clinical Frailty Scale and an ACTION Frailty Score derived by summing a rank score of 0-2 assigned for each grade (total ranged between 0 to 6). Multivariable logistic regression examined the association between assigned frailty by score or scale and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: Among 143,722 older AMI patients, 108,059 (75.2%) were fit and/or well and 6,484 (4.5%) were vulnerable to frailty, while 7,527 (5.2%) had mild, 3,913 (2.7%) had moderate, 2,715 had (1.9%) severe, and 632 (0.4%) had very severe frailty according to the ACTION Frailty Scale, while 14,392 (10.0%) could not be categorized due to incomplete ascertainment. Frail patients were older, more frequently female, of non-white race and/or ethnicity, and less likely to be treated with guideline-recommended therapies. Increasing severity of frailty by this scale was associated with a step-wise higher risk for in-hospital mortality (P-trend < .001). Patient categories of the ACTION Frailty Score provided similar results. After adjustment, each 1-unit increase in Frailty Score was associated with a 12% higher mortality risk (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.10-1.15). CONCLUSIONS: Among older patients with acute myocardial infarction, frailty is common and independently associated with in-hospital mortality. These findings show the importance of pragmatic evaluation of frailty in hospital-level quality scores, guideline recommendations, and incorporation into other registry data collection efforts.

Rehabilitation Using Mobile Health for Older Adults With Ischemic Heart Disease in the Home Setting (RESILIENT): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: Participation in ambulatory cardiac rehabilitation remains low, especially among older adults. Although mobile health cardiac rehabilitation (mHealth-CR) provides a novel opportunity to deliver care, age-specific impairments may limit older adults' uptake, and efficacy data are currently lacking. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to describe the design of the rehabilitation using mobile health for older adults with ischemic heart disease in the home setting (RESILIENT) trial. METHODS: RESILIENT is a multicenter randomized clinical trial that is enrolling patients aged ≥65 years with ischemic heart disease in a 3:1 ratio to either an intervention (mHealth-CR) or control (usual care) arm, with a target sample size of 400 participants. mHealth-CR consists of a commercially available mobile health software platform coupled with weekly exercise therapist sessions to review progress and set new activity goals. The primary outcome is a change in functional mobility (6-minute walk distance), which is measured at baseline and 3 months. Secondary outcomes are health status, goal attainment, hospital readmission, and mortality. Among intervention participants, engagement with the mHealth-CR platform will be analyzed to understand the characteristics that determine different patterns of use (eg, persistent high engagement and declining engagement). RESULTS: As of December 2021, the RESILIENT trial had enrolled 116 participants. Enrollment is projected to continue until October 2023. The trial results are expected to be reported in 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The RESILIENT trial will generate important evidence about the efficacy of mHealth-CR among older adults in multiple domains and characteristics that determine the sustained use of mHealth-CR. These findings will help design future precision medicine approaches to mobile health implementation in older adults. This knowledge is especially important in light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has shifted much of health care to a remote, internet-based setting. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03978130; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03978130. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/32163.

Disease Management in Skilled Nursing Facilities Improves Outcomes for Patients With a Primary Diagnosis of Heart Failure.

OBJECTIVE: Skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are common destinations after hospitalization for patients with heart failure (HF). Our objective was to determine if patients in SNFs with a primary hospital discharge diagnosis of HF benefit from an HF disease management program (HF-DMP). DESIGN: This is a subgroup analysis of multisite, physician and practice blocked, cluster-randomized controlled trial of HF-DMP vs usual care for patients in SNF with an HF diagnosis. The HF-DMP standardized SNF HF care using HF practice guidelines and performance measures and was delivered by an HF nurse advocate. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Patients with a primary hospital discharge diagnosis of HF discharged to SNF. METHODS: Composite outcome of all-cause hospitalization, emergency department visits, and mortality were evaluated at 30 and 60 days post SNF admission. Linear mixed models accounted for patient clustering at the physician level. RESULTS: Of 671 individuals enrolled in the main study, 125 had a primary hospital discharge diagnosis of HF (50 HF-DMP; 75 usual care). Mean age was 79 ± 10 years, 53% women, and mean ejection fraction 46% ± 15%. At 60 days post SNF admission, the rate of the composite outcome was lower in the HF-DMP group (30%) compared with usual care (52%) (P = .02). The rate of the composite outcome at 30 days for the HF-DMP group was 18% vs 31% in the usual care group (P = .11). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Patients with a primary hospital discharge diagnosis of HF who received HF-DMP while cared for in an SNF had lower rates of the composite outcome at 60 days. Standardized HF management during SNF stays may be important for patients with a primary discharge diagnosis of HF.