ManageHF+

A symptom tracking and educational research app for patients with heart failure.

By 2030, over 8 million Americans will have heart failure. Hospital re-admissions are most commonly caused by not recognizing the signs of feeling worse and not restricting sodium intake. The ManageHF+ app is the core component of a federally-funded, multicenter clinical trial (NCT04755816) titled “A Mobile Application to Promote Self-management and Improve Outcomes in Heart Failure.” The sponsor of the study is the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging, and the study has received institutional review board (IRB) approval. The study is investigating the effectiveness of two types of tailored notifications delivered via a mobile app for heart failure patients.

A symptom self-management notification provides patients a notification reminding them of strategies that can help them feel better. The app collects a patient’s reported symptoms through a daily questionnaire, provides feedback with a health status indicator, and sends a tailored notification with health self-management information based on their health status. These self-management behaviors can prevent worsening of a patient's heart failure symptoms.

A dietary sodium notification provides patients a notification with food recommendations based on their location. The app uses location services to determine when a patient arrives at a grocery store or arrives at a restaurant. The user receives a tailored notification to assist with making dietary choices based on sodium content. At a grocery store, the user is prompted to scan items, and the app shows lower sodium options for their scanned item. At a restaurant, the user receives a tailored notification that provides them a curated list of the lowest sodium options when they arrive. These dietary sodium recommendations promote lower sodium intake.

All research participants must complete the consenting process using the IRB-approved consent prior to using the app. The IRB-approved consent describes the app in detail, including app permissions for location services. The app is available only to consented research participants. The app was designed by researchers at the University of Michigan.