Improving the self-management of heart failure in low- and middle-income countries using a standalone mobile health intervention

Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have recently been investigated as a means of simplifying heart failure (HF) self-management. Though these interventions have been shown to improve the self-care efficacy of HF patients living in high-income countries, they remain underexamined in resource-limited settings. Thus, a user-centred design process was used to develop an mHealth intervention for HF patients and clinicians living in Uganda. An initial, exploratory phase revealed an overdependence of patients on the clinic, and an overburdening of cardiac clinics in Uganda. An mHealth system was developed to allow patients to report daily symptoms, receive tailored treatment advice, and connect with local clinicians when showing signs of regression in their health. In usability testing, the developed system was found to be highly usable amongst Ugandan patients, caregivers and clinicians. Once deployed, the well-accepted intervention is expected to debottleneck the currently-overburdened cardiac clinics and improve the self-care efficacy of Ugandan HF patients.M.H.Sc