Innovation Exchange –  digital technology and innovative service approaches to increase access to and uptake of cardiac rehabilitation services

The Long Term Plan set an ambition that by 2028 the proportion of patients accessing cardiac rehabilitation will be amongst the best in Europe, with up to 85% of those eligible accessing care.  A targeted fund of £7m will support local systems to work towards that ambition.

In collaboration with the Cardiac Pathways Improvement Programme and the Midlands Cardiac Rehabilitation Network, the East and West Midlands AHSNs held a virtual Innovation Exchange event on 23 June 2022. 

The event brought together a multi professional audience and presented innovative products and services with the potential to contribute to the ambition described above. 

Needs definition

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the second highest cause of premature death, after cancer, in England, affecting 7 million people. 1 in 4 premature deaths is caused by CVD, and 1.6 million disability adjusted life years can be attributed to CVD.  

Access to and uptake of Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR) services varies across England, and only 60,877 patients (50%) of the 122,277 eligible patients in 2017/18 took up offers of cardiac rehabilitation. This falls well below other European countries such as Belgium (78%), and Germany (60%).

Challenge Statements

We invited suppliers to apply to showcase their products and/or services at our virtual event on 23 June.

Innovations/solutions were considered for inclusion providing they had the potential to address one or more of the challenges described below:

1. Inequality of access due to service provision, location and eligibility criteria
2. Shortages of staff skilled to deliver CR classes due to recruitment and retention issues are creating long waiting lists and patient anxiety about how to manage their condition
3. Lack of and/or long waiting times to access specialist services that create a more holistic model of care e.g., IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies), dietitians and clinics to complement care/engagement.
4. Poor engagement and retention of patients in CR classes including in classes offering multiple modes of delivery
5. Poor engagement with under-represented and hard-to-reach groups
6. Various barriers to engagement including patients with co-morbidities, limited or no digital literacy and language barriers
7. Both face-to-face and digital modes of delivery have poor access to translation services
8. Flexibility to accommodate patient choice - hybrid service models supporting face to face and digital services
9. Lack of options for gym-based exercises for people who either avoid exercise or have had poor experiences in the past
10. Restricted access to CR professionals/classes after the programme ends e.g. to establish a level of recovery to increase/return to exercise routine.

Next steps

The successful suppliers were invited to present their solutions at the virtual event which addressed the challenge statements highlighted above. 

EMAHSN remains available to support the adoption of innovative approaches to the delivery of cardiac rehabilitation. We have a number of offers to assist with testing the deployment and evaluating the impact of innovations - please contact us to discuss further.

For any queries, please email Michael Ellis, Senior Improvement Lead – Innovation & Improvement Projects, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Resources

 Event recording - Innovation Exchange - cardiac rehabilitation