My Heartcoach for women

Our research team has worked with the Northern Alberta Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (NACRP) to develop an online, home-based cardiac rehabilitation program (“My Heart Coach”). This program provides exercises and educational activities consistent with current clinical practice guidelines.

A potential opportunity for improvement in this program and others is the development of a woman-focused cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program with the addition of mind-body wellness programming to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression. The proposed project will use a multi-methods approach to include patient-prioritized and women-centered content in My Heart Coach.

Using a qualitative descriptive approach, we will explore their needs and preferences regarding mind-body wellness programming that improves anxiety and depression while attending to the objectives of CR. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with women undergoing CR. Interviews will be recorded and transcribed verbatim, with reflexive thematic analysis to identify themes. In future work, the results from this study can be used to inform the development of a women-specific online CR program that will enhance the mental well-being of women following a significant heart event.

Faculty Supervisor:

Puneeta Tandon

Student:

Partner:

Alberta Health Services

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Public administration; Retail trade

University:

University of Alberta

Program: