SilverCloud Health in conjunction with our partners at King’s College London presents our newly developed intervention for people with cardiovascular disease (CVD). At the recent International Digital Healthcare Congress our team presented the development of the intervention and also results from our focus groups. We have been working hard over the last 6 months to pull together a great team of people from cardiology, nursing, technology, psychology, and business development to develop our first CVD intervention that uniquely combines the physical aspects of managing this long-term condition and importantly integrates attention to the significant comorbidity that can exist with having to manage a long term condition.
The intervention focuses on the management and understanding of key physical symptoms – breathlessness, fatigue, chest pain, palpitations – and in addition associated psychological distress – depression, anxiety, and stress. The development has involved people with CVD, from initial focus groups, to think aloud usability testing and most recently a feasibility and usability trial of the intervention – results coming soon. Service users have been really positive in their feedback.
Through the SBRI phase 1 funding our research group have developed and tested usability of an online platform to support self-management of symptoms and promote wellbeing of people with cardiovascular disease (CVD). The project developed an online psychoeducational and therapeutic intervention for people with CVD; the content modules include disorder-specific content alongside psychological distress content adapted for CVD:
• Symptom management (chest pain, palpitations, fatigue, breathlessness and associated distress)
• Self management - including medication adherence and attending and getting the most out of appointments and promoting a healthier lifestyle (to reduce risk factors)
• Psychological distress (cognitive behavioural therapy for generalised distress)
As part of the SilverCloud health goal of offering a complete library of therapeutic programmes to meet the needs of as broad an audience as possible, SilverCloud Health is in the process of developing programmes for users who have long term chronic conditions such as CHD and diabetes. The purpose of such programmes being, to improve disease management through addressing the underlying mental health conditions that affect approximately 20-40% of those with LTC's.
Underlying issues such as anxiety and depression are considered key factors in poor self-management and for repeat patient presentation in primary and secondary services.
