Grant: Oper Grant:eHealth Innov Partnership Program(eHIPP)-Seniors w Complex Care Needs

Each year thousands of seniors in Canada and the United Kingdom have open heart and vascular (veins and arteries) surgeries. These surgeries are meant to save lives and improve symptoms, yet, many develop chronic pain and other complications (e.g. infections, blood clots). We also know that the usual way in which people are watched after surgery in hospital, by way of checking blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate (vital signs) every 6 to 12 hours, does not keep people safe. We have missed thousands of cases in hospital where people's blood pressure and breathing has gone too low, causing a heart attack or stroke. We aim to test a new system, called SMArT VIEW, created so that vital signs can be monitored in hospital, and at home, automatically with wireless technology. We will catch serious problems, like dangerously low blood pressure. SMArT VIEW has the ability to link seniors directly with the hospital so that they receive support when help is needed. SMArT VIEW will also teach seniors how to manage their pain and how to manage their overall recovery. We will test SMArT VIEW by first asking patients, and nurses to try our system and then tell us what their experience was like. Specifically, we'll ask how easy SMArT VIEW was to use, and whether they found it helpful. Based on what we learn, we'll make improvements. Next, we will test whether SMArT VIEW can help seniors to keep their pain under control after surgery, whether it helps to prevent major complications, and whether it helps to prevent people from going to the emergency room or being readmitted to hospital. We will do this by giving 256 people equal chance (like flipping a coin) of being enrolled in SMArT VIEW or regular health care after surgery. We will compare what happens between these groups. This study will provide us with important information about whether SMArT VIEW can help prevent chronic pain and complications for seniors recovering at home after cardiac and vascular surgery.