EU-CaRE stands for a EUropean study on effectiveness and sustainability of current Cardiac Rehabilitation programmes in the Elderly.
Introduction
This project “EU-CaRE” is funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union and the government of Switzerland. Horizon 2020 is the European Union programme to promote European research and innovation. The grant application submitted by EU-CaRE was rated excellent by the European Commission. The success rate for the respective funding round in which EU-CaRE participated was only 5.9%.
The aim of EU-CaRE is to improve quality of life and independency of elderly coronary patients (≥ 65 years old). A network of leading European experts from seven countries and 8 institutes have started this project in order to compare, improve and tailor cardiac rehabilitation programmes for these patients (EU-CaRE trial). In addition, the e-technology will be tested in a randomized control study (EU-CaRE RCT trial).
Eu-CaRE RCT
EU-CaRE RCT is a multicenter (6 centers), multinational (5 countries), randomized controlled trial for an eHealth application in cardiac rehabilitation in Europe.
Home-based CR seems to be equally effective as centre-based CR and has the potential to increase the participation rate. In combination with novel e-Health applications (where guidance from distance is enabled), home-based care could overcome barriers to access to CR and therefore be a useful tool for increasing participation. Furthermore it seems that telehealth interventions are effective in improving self-management skills and provide effective risk factor reduction and secondary prevention. However, this is only shown on the short term, long term effectiveness of telehealth interventions is still not known.
Objectives
- To assess whether mobile telemonitoring guided CR (mCR) programmes result in better long term effects on physical, mental and social outcomes in elderly patients not opting for regular CR, than patients who do not follow the mCR programme.
- To assess whether mCR as alternative for a regular CR programme is an effective means to increase participation and adherence of elderly in a CR programme.
- To analyse the induced costs of the mCR programme and determine its cost effectiveness.
Primary endpoint
Primary endpoint is a difference in peak oxygen uptake (VO2peak) from an incremental exercise test (T1-T0).
Sample size
During 2 years the aim is to include 238 patients in total (119 per study arm) which will be approximately 40 patients per centre. The first patient was included in November 2015 in Isala Medical Centre (Zwolle), The Netherlands.
Clinical investigators
Ed de Kluiver MD, PhD (Department of Cardiology, Isala Heart Centre Zwolle, The Netherlands).
Clinical trial information
Main publication
Horizon 2020
This project is funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union
