Effects of a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation intervention on risk factors, recurrent hospitalization and mortality

We investigated whether a digitally enabled cardiac rehabilitation (DeCR) programme, delivered to patients following a heart disease hospitalization, improved patients' cardiovascular disease risk factors and whether they had a reduction in rehospitalizations, spent fewer days in hospital and improved survival compared with matched controls who undertook either face-to-face cardiac rehabilitation (F2F-CR) or usual care.• DeCR was associated with similar healthcare utilization outcomes compared with F2F-CR. This suggests that the potential benefits of DeCR may be comparable. Additionally, DeCR programmes create an opportunity for patients to choose the style of CR to undertake and have an advantage of broader access.• The DeCR group spent significantly fewer readmission days in hospital compared with the usual care group, which may reflect differences in the nature of rehospitalizations when they occur.