Aims Heart failure chiefly affects the elderly, with frequent emergency admissions. Telemonitoring can identify worsening heart failure but previous randomized trials have enrolled selected patient populations. The Home‐HF study examined the impact of home telemonitoring on typical heart failure patients discharged from three acute hospitals in North West London, UK. Methods and results Patients hospitalized with heart failure were randomized to telemonitoring or usual specialist care. Primary outcome measures were days alive and out of hospital. Secondary outcome measures were number and duration of heart failure hospitalizations, clinic visits, and quality of life. We recruited 182 patients. There was no difference in the primary outcome measure in the two groups, but there were significantly fewer unplanned hospitalizations for heart failure decompensation, and a reduction in clinic and emergency room visits in the telemonitoring group. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean direct health service costs. Conclusion Home telemonitoring in a typical elderly population of heart failure patients produces a similar outcome to ‘usual’ specialist care, but reduces clinic and emergency room visits and unplanned heart failure rehospitalizations at little additional cost. This method of disease monitoring may allow specialist services to increase the number of patients under their care.

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BackgroundPatients with gastrointestinal disease may have comorbid iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) and an increased risk of hospitalisation and re-attendance in hospital. The purpose of this study was to determine if oral and intravenous (IV) treatment of IDA in patients with gastrointestinal disease attending hospital were associated with differential rates of subsequent re-attendance.Methods and findingsData from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (primary care) and Hospital Treatment Insights (secondary care) databases in England were used to conduct this retrospective cohort study. Patients with a coded gastrointestinal disease and IDA who attended hospital (inpatient or outpatient) and were dispensed oral or IV iron between 01/01/2010-31/10/2013 were included. Elective and emergency re-attendances in secondary care within 30 days of the initial attendance were determined. Demographics, medical diagnoses and treatments were extracted. Re-attendance rates following oral or IV iron were compared using chi-square tests and a step-wise logistic regression model to adjust for confounders. 2,844 patients contributed 6,294 initial attendances; 80% of patients received oral iron, 14% received intravenous iron, and 6% received both. Of initial attendances recording oral iron, 77% resulted in re-attendance in hospital, compared to 34% of those recording IV iron (unadjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.16; adjusted OR: 0.52 [95% CI: 0.44–0.61]). Initial attendances using IV treatment were more likely to result in elective re-attendance (84%) than those recording oral treatment (43%) (p<0.001). Median length of stay in hospital tended to be shorter for patients using IV iron (1.4 days; interquartile range 0.5–3.6 days; oral iron: 5.1 days; interquartile range: 2.2–9.6 days).ConclusionsPatients with gastrointestinal disease and IDA who received IV iron were less likely to re-attend hospital, more likely to re-attend electively, and tended to have a shorter length of stay in hospital. The mode of IDA treatment could have a real-world impact on healthcare utilisation.

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