My Heart Mate
A randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a gamified mobile app on secondary prevention in coronary heart disease patients.
Recurrence of cardiac events is common after a first event, leading to hospitalisations and increased health burden. Patients have difficulties achieving the lifestyle changes required for secondary prevention and access to secondary prevention programs is limited. The study evaluates a novel game-based mobile app MyHeartMate, as a strategy for accessing secondary prevention support for reducing CVD risk factors in patients at high risk of further CVD events. The app is a stand-alone freely-available mobile app on iOS and Android platforms is being tested on coronary heart disease patients and the study is the first to provide rigorous data on effectiveness of a gamification approach through a randomised controlled trial in CHD patients.
The Team
- Prof Gemma Figtree, Interventional cardiologist and professor at USYD; President, Australian Cardiovascular Alliance;
- Prof Robyn Gallagher, USYD, Professor of Nursing
- Prof Julie Redfern, USYD, Professor of Public Health
- Prof Lis Neubeck, Edinburgh Napier University, Professor of Cardiovascular Health
- Prof Clara Chow, USYD, Professor of Medicine
- Prof David Celermajer, USYD, the Scandrett Professor of Cardiology
- Prof Geoffrey Tofler, USYD, Professor of Preventative Cardiology
- Dr Karice Hyun, USYD, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr Helen Parker, USYD, Academic Fellow
- A/Prof Tom Buckley, USYD, Critical/Acute Care
- Dr Tracey Schumacher, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Postdocotral Research Fellow
- Ms Cate Ferry, ex-Clinical Manager at National Heart Foundation