Research News
April 15, 2009
VA HSR&D Investigator Bonnie Wakefield to Receive Best Paper Award from American Telemedicine Association
HSR&D investigator Bonnie Wakefield, PhD, RN, part of HSR&D's Center for Research in the Implementation of Innovative Strategies in Practice, is the lead author of "Evaluation of Home Telehealth Following Hospitalization for Heart Failure: A Randomized Trial", which has been named "Best Paper, 2008" by the editorial board of Telemedicine and e-Health, the journal of the American Telemedicine Association.
Dr. Wakefield's paper was based on an evaluation of a home telehealth intervention of patients with heart failure, which examined whether a telehealth-facilitated, post-discharge support program for patients with chronic heart failure can have an effective impact on: 12-month survival rates; post-discharge use of resources (readmission rates, hospital days, urgent care clinic visits, time to first readmission); and show improved quality of life when compared to usual care. Results showed that compared to usual care, the telephone or video conference intervention resulted in a longer time to readmission. Further, there were no differences in hospital days or urgent care clinic use, and all study participants reported a higher disease-specific quality of life at one year, based on scores from the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure instrument.
Dr. Wakefield will be presented with the Best Paper honors at the April 2009 American Telemedicine Association's annual research meeting.