Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telehealth has been shown to be the best way of delivering health education to prevent transmission of the virus. Telehealth has been used to manage stroke at all stages of the recovery. In 2021, we collaborated with the cardiac rehabilitation team in providing telehealth cardiovascular lifestyle education to our stroke patients. This was a weekly 1-hour class for 5 weeks on lifestyle modification using the Pexip Infinity Connect application. The topics included: Understanding Stroke; Physical Activity & Exercise; Thinking & Perception and Stroke; Nutrition Workshop; and Understanding Your Medication. Selection of patients was based on a) cognition or presence of a family member who can assist the patient; b) English speaking; c) patients discharged home.
Aim: This study aims to assess the feasibility of telehealth in providing cardiovascular lifestyle education to stroke patients using Pexip Infinity Connection application, in collaboration with the cardiac rehabilitation team.
Methods: Audits & interviews of patients were conducted. Outcome measures were full attendance to the 5 sessions and recurrent stroke 3 months from discharge.
Results: Of the 69 patients who were recruited, only 36% (n=25) attended at least one session and 56% (n=14) completed the 5 sessions. Only 1 patient represented to hospital due to a recurrent stroke. The patients interviewed found the sessions useful and were satisfied with the information included. Moreover, patients claimed an increase in their knowledge about stroke, the importance of their medications and lifestyle modification. The reasons for non-attendance include a) difficulties operating the computer/Pexip Infinity Connect app; poor internet connection; c) conflicting health-related appointments/outpatient rehabilitation.
Conclusion: Despite the pitfalls in the use of the Pexip Infinity Connect app, the participants found the collaboration telehealth cardiovascular lifestyle education useful and improved their awareness of lifestyle modification. This supports the feasibility of future research on virtual post-stroke education with IT assistance.