Mortality Benefit of a Fourth-Generation Synchronous Telehealth Program for the Management of Chronic Cardiovascular Disease: A Longitudinal Study

Background: We have shown that a fourth-generation telehealth program that analyzes and responds synchronously to data transferred from patients is associated with fewer hospitalizations and lower medical costs. Whether a fourth-generation telehealth program can reduce all-cause mortality has not yet been reported for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease. Objective: We conducted a clinical epidemiology study retrospectively to determine whether a fourth-generation telehealth program can reduce all-cause mortality for patients with chronic cardiovascular disease. Methods: We enrolled 576 patients who had joined a telehealth program and compared them with 1178 control patients. A Cox proportional hazards model was fitted to analyze the impact of risk predictors on all-cause mortality. The model adjusted for age, sex, and chronic comorbidities. Results: There were 53 (9.3%) deaths in the telehealth group and 136 (11.54%) deaths in the control group. We found that the telehealth program violated the proportional hazards assumption by the Schoenfeld residual test. Thus, we fitted a Cox regression model with time-varying covariates. The results showed an estimated hazard ratio (HR) of 0.866 (95% CI 0.837-0.896, P