Technological Advancements

Due to the advancements of technology, Jenna and I thought it would be beneficial to research current cardiac applications available on our smart phones from the patient’s perspective; HeartDecide was quickly discovered. This free application, available for all Apple products, introduced an all-encompassing cardiovascular easy-to-use tool for patients to understand their respective cardiac anatomy, conditions, and procedures. Although this application was released in 2012 by Orca Health, Inc. at Harvard University, it is continuously updating its information with a copyright date until 2015. Once downloaded, the user has the option of entering the application as a doctor, nurse, or patient. We reviewed the information as if we were a patient, browsing to find a specific medical condition. For instance, we searched “heart attack” via the “conditions” tab and found a simple video lasting 1 minute and 32 seconds. In addition, there are written materials provided after the video by swiping the screen to the left. Here we found a frequently asked question and answer section detailing “what is a heart attack,” “what causes a heart attack,” “what are the symptoms,” and “how is a heart attack treated.” Furthermore, there are numerous conditions available to search such as angina, atherosclerosis, atrial fibrillation, sudden cardiac death, heart failure, and many more. We both believe this to be a great informational tool for patients in order to understand more about their clinical condition.

HeartDecide can be used as a supplemental tool to the education provided by the cardiologist. Often, when patients are newly diagnosed with a cardiac condition or a trauma occurs, they are not able to fully comprehend and/or process the education provided by the clinicians. They can learn great detail about their condition(s) on their own time once they are psychologically prepared to do so. Therefore, we highly recommend this application to all clients with a cardiac condition <3