Phone Updates Don’t Help in Heart Failure

Giving doctors frequent phone updates about heart failure patients did not help to keep them alive or out of the hospital, a new study has found. The results conflicted with prior small studies that found “telemonitoring” did help people. The study included 1,653 people who had a recent hospital stay for heart failure. All of them had poorly controlled blood pressure. They were randomly assigned to the phone program or just their usual care. People in the phone program were told to call the system every day. They reported their weight, blood pressure and symptoms. Doctors could change their medicines or take other actions as needed. In the next 6 months, about half of each group either died or had to go back in the hospital. The study was presented at a conference. Reuters Health news service wrote about it November 16.